Business & Economy

The Cuban government has decided to eliminate the monthly quota of cigarettes distributed through the nationwide basic products rationing system. The smokes were available way below cost on the same list as subsidized food and hygiene products, reported IPS on Wednesday. The move is part of the policy of President Raul Castro to reduce government spending.

The newspaper Courier Journal from Louisville, Kentucky, defended the elimination of the travel to Cuba restrictions instead of easing them, as White House representatives have announced as a possibility. In an editorial the daily also said that the embargo has been a failed effort to oust Fidel Castro’s government. Greater contact with the U.S. people could encourage the Cuban population’s wish to make economic and political changes, it said.

More than 50 per cent of the persons who have received lands in usufruct, according to Law 259 of 2008, are young, Pedro Olivera, director of the National Land Control Center, said. According to the source, out of the 1,007,112 hectares handed over until now, only 46 per cent are producing due to a “lack of resources and work means and the drought that has hit the country.”

The Cuban government hopes to be able to transport 52 per cent of domestic trade by railroad by 2011, Minister of Transportation César Arocha affirmed. To achieve this, the island is working on the repair of 6,000 kilometers of railways, in addition to investing five billion dollars in the purchase of locomotives and cars.

Cuba will be the venue of a golf tournament sponsored by former Mexican athlete Ana Guevara on October 13-17, the Athens 2004 Olympic silver medal winner announced in a press conference held in Varadero beach resort, some 120 kilometers east of the island’s capital. The Cuban authorities are planning the construction of 16 new golf courses in the Caribbean island nation as part of a program to boost tourism.

Rio Zaza had a virtual monopoly on selling packaged fruit juices within Cuba. After the mysterious death of its general manager Roberto Baudrand, the product suddenly disappeared from Cuban supermarkets, bars and restaurants. No explanation was forthcoming.

Massachusetts Democratic Representative Bill Delahunt asked U.S. President Barack Obama to allow the operation of flights to and from Cuba in the airport in Tampa, south of Florida, with the aim of facilitating access of Cuban-American families to trips to the island, the Miami-based El Nuevo Herald reported. Until now the authorized airports are in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

Cuba presented the Art of Beer Cultural Route, a tourist package that tours 30 sites in the eastern city of Holguín related to the history and present of that beverage, the local press reported. The initiative opens tomorrow, precisely one week before the start of the carnival in that city, known for the production of the Mayabe beer.

Cuba’s coffee harvest for the 2010-2011 cycle should be between 20 and 25 percent higher than the poor showing last year. Last season was the worst coffee harvest in over a half century and combined with the worst sugar harvest in over a century in the struggling Cuban agriculture.

Cuba will build residential complexes annexed to 16 new golf courses, whose dwellings can be purchased by persons from other countries, affirmed Minister of Tourism Manuel Marrero. The official said that the measure should come into force before the end of the year, after the legal regulations have concluded regarding aspects such as the sales contracts and the immigration status of the owners.