By Lucilo Tejera Díaz

Camagüey City, (Cuban News Agency) Farmers expect to collect 40 thousand tons of milled rice in the present harvest, enough to cover the whole social and popular demand for a year.

Idelino Álvarez, manager of agro-industrial complex Ruta Invasora, stated that recollection process will reach its highest point at midmonth.

Farmer Union members will be on the field at that time and will be responsible for the 65 per cent of the whole production.

The official also asserted that current harvest areas were planted from November 2009 until last February and they are expected to yield four tons per hectare.

Eleven machines will take part in the recollection tasks, some of them bought by the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas Peoples) as well as equipment to modernize  or invest on mills, dryers, care of plantations as well as road and irrigation channels keeping.

One of the three mills currently existing in Camagüey will not operate during the harvest since it is undergoing a broad renovation process; instead, a brand new mill will be open in the municipality of Esmeralda to fulfill rice milling needs in the northern part of the territory.

Among the more productive units in Cuba is Cooperative Farm Manuel Ascunce, the farmers were able to sell about nine thousand 770 tons of humid rice in its husk.

Miguel Arturo Durán, President of the Farm Union, located to south of the town of Vertientes, hopes they will be capable of collecting 13 thousand 800 tons in the present harvest.

In general, more than 25 thousand 300 hectares will be harvested in 2010 in Camagüey province.

During the last five years there has been a sustained increase regarding plantation in order to reduce the amount of imports.

Cuba consumes about 600 thousand tons of rice every year; in 2010 nearly half of it will be harvested in the Island.

At the beginning of May, getting milled rice in the market costs 500 USD each ton.

Translated by Luis Viamontes

Adelante Online