7 ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER AUGUST 2024 continued on page 8 “Exactly how they’ll get along as business partners is a question,” says Paul Johnson, Chicago-based chair of the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba. “But at least now there’s an opportunity for them to come together.” WORKFORCE IMPACTS Private industry is changing the workforce. Johnson says that one-third of the workforce is now employed by mipymes and farm cooperatives. Business activities include food processing, accounting, computer programming, hospitality, and restaurants. In a capitalistic society like Canada, these kinds of private-sector enterprises would be considered normal and routine. But that hasn’t been the case in Cuba for some 50 years following the revolution. Most people have become accustomed to working for the government; the government owns almost everything, and the financial incentives for working hard are nil. Johnson, who lived in Cuba and has friends and relatives there, is bullish about the emergence of mipymes. “Cubans can now work and earn hard currency without being dependent on government,” he says. MARKET OPPORTUNITIES Johnson also points to a growing government-owned warehouse industry developing in Cuba. Warehouses receive pallets and shipping containers — again, many of which are from family members living abroad — resulting in jobs for handlers and processors and a delivery network for drivers. The government owns the warehouses, but mipymes are allowed to rent space and operate. CUBAN FARMER PREPARING SEEDS. (PHOTO: OWEN ROBERTS). CUBAN FARMER TILLING THE SOIL. (PHOTO: OWEN ROBERTS).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQzODE4