Business & Economy

Cuba will bring together hundreds of Havana cigar aficionados during the 13th Havana Cigar Festival, which will begin on Feb. 21 in this capital, the Opciones weekly reported. The event, organized by the Habanos S.A. joint venture, will feature the Havana Cigar Sommelier contest, a competition in which the participants demonstrate their mastery in the combination of wines and cigars.

Forty per cent of the available land for agricultural purposes in Cuba is still idle, despite the handing over of plots more than two years ago through Decree-Law 259, stated the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Center for Land Control.

A lack of foresight in the purchase of spare parts for harvesters and problems in the contracting of productions affect the recovery of the rice sector in Cuba, Minister of Agriculture Gustavo Rodríguez recognized in a meeting of cooperatives held in the eastern city of Bayamo.

Cuba is now six months away from considerably faster telecommunications and Internet capability as the undersea cable link from Venezuela began to be laid on Saturday. The long awaited project will provide 3,000 times greater capability, says the Cuban government. It is still unclear what the greater capability will mean for ordinary Cubans who would like to have Internet service. That decision and the cost will be determined at a later date by the Cuban government. Presently only a select number of Cubans are able to surf the web.

Mail service from Cuba to the United States has returned to the old icy Cold War status after a brief lapse of exchange over the last year. Once again, it is Cuban families with relatives on both sides of the Florida Straits that will most suffer the consequences.

Cuba will show its attractions for international tourism at the International Tourism Fair (FITUR 2011) to be held in Madrid, Spain, through Jan. 23. The island, which is being presented as a nature, events and incentive travel destination, this year expects a growth of around 10 per cent in tourist arrivals.

Cuba’s Habanos S.A. filed suit before the European Union General Court demanding the annulment of the recognition of the Kiowa cigar brand, produced by Tabacos de Centroamérica, due to its resemblance to the renowned Cohiba brand, the media in Brussels, Belgium, reported. Kiowa was recognized by the Domestic Market Harmonization Office, which rejected the claims by the island’s company.

More than 85 per cent of the homes damaged by Hurricane Ike in the north eastern province of Holguín were recovered until 2010, Archi Felipe Lam Ayala, provincial housing director, announced. That hurricane affected 124,838 homes in that part of the island.

The White House announced on Friday that President Obama plans to allow students and organized groups to go to Cuba as “purposeful travel” similar to what took place under the Clinton administration.

The Cuban capital was able to economize 17 million dollars in 2010 by saving 98.7 gigawatts/hour, announced Inaudys Mora Fonseca, general director of the Electricity Conglomerate in the island’s main city, the only province that met last year’s electricity saving plan established by the authorities.