Food Expenditures to Surpass US $2.5 billion

HAVANA, Nov. 4 – Cuba will use more than US $2.5 billion dollars to import food products in 2008, Pedro Alvarez, president of the Alimport Food Import Company told the press. The figure is double what was invested in 2007, noted IPS. The island’s agriculture was dealt a hard blow by hurricanes Gustav and Ike and is now in the recovery phase, which involved massive plantings of short cycle crops.