“We know of many cases of people living in the country who are interested in accessing this possibility,” said the Ministry of Agriculture.
14ymedio/EFE, Havana, 4 March 2025 — The Cuban Government is considering granting land in usufruct to foreign companies and individuals with permanent residence on the Island, in a new measure to increase agricultural production, which is going through a deep crisis.
The Ministry of Agriculture advanced the step this Tuesday at a press conference, by presenting a draft law on ownership, possession and use of land. It explained that the regulation seeks to “increase agricultural production” and to “recognize all economic actors.”
The text, 60 pages, will enter a discussion phase until May 1 and will be presented to the National Assembly of People’s Power for approval in December.
The text will enter a discussion phase until May 1 and will be presented to the National Assembly of People’s Power for approval in December
Cuba has already delivered land in usufruct to foreign companies, although under a “legal vacuum,” Mayra Cruz, Legal Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, clarified at a press conference.
“The fundamental change comes from giving recognition. The current decree law on the delivery of land in usufruct does not speak of foreign legal entities in any way. How has the delivery of land to these subjects been resolved legally? From the Constitution, but there is a gap on this issue in agrarian legislation,” she said .
Last January, the Cuban state press reported that a Vietnamese company became the first foreign firm since 1959 to receive land to cultivate on the Island.
The company, according to the official newspaper Granma, obtained 308 hectares to plant rice on a farm in the south of Pinar del Río province.
“We know many cases of foreigners who live in the country who are interested in the possibility of having land in usufruct. They have had to request it from their wives, a child, a Cuban relative. This proposal incorporates the possibility that, as with other goods – cars, homes -, they can acquire it in their name,” Cruz said.
“The current decree law on the delivery of land in usufruct does not talk about foreign legal entities in any way”
Boris Titov, president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council, had already said in May 2023 that the Island offered Russian businessmen the right to use land for a period of 30 years, an unprecedented concession from the regime.
“They are giving us preferential treatment; the path is paved,” said the Kremlin adviser during the inauguration of the bilateral business economic forum held in Havana, according to Reuters.
For Titov, the conditions proposed by the Cuban government affect ” the long-term lease of land, the tax-free import of agricultural machinery, the granting of the right to transfer profits in foreign currency and much more. Of course, we are also waiting for the reduction of bureaucratic barriers.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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