bypassing state middleman
By Associated Press, Published: November 21
HAVANA — The Cuban government is authorizing farmers to sell their
products directly to state-run tourist hotels and restaurants,
eliminating the need to go through a government redistributor,
authorities said Monday.
The measure also lets buyers and sellers negotiate their own prices,
according to the Official Gazette, a government publication that
disseminates new laws.
The latest in a series of economic changes pushed by President Raul
Castro, it aims to "reduce losses by simplifying the links between
primary production and the final consumer," according to the Communist
Party newspaper Granma.
Beginning Dec. 1, independent growers, rural co-ops and state-run
agribusinesses will be able to sell "agricultural products without
industrial processing, rice for consumption and charcoal to hotel and
restaurant establishments in the tourism sector," the Gazette said.
Payments will be collected in Cuban pesos, valued at 24 to the U.S.
dollar, rather than the convertible currency, currently one-to-one with
the greenback.
The measure does not authorize direct sales to the growing ranks of
private restaurants and other small businesses that have mushroomed
across the island as part of Castro's economic overhaul.
The government also recently legalized the sale of homes and automobiles
for the first time since shortly after the 1959 revolution and is
planning to slash state payrolls. Last week, the government reported a
major reorganization of the sugar industry to eliminate bureaucracy.
Tourism is one of Cuba's top sources of foreign income, bringing in
about $2 billion a year.
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