Cuba

C

Tourism

Tourism is the only economic sector that has grown significantly in Cuba since the late 1980s. The government depends on the profits of tourism to bring in valuable foreign currency. In 1990 tourists spent $243 million in Cuba; in 2005 that figure had increased to $1.9 billion. The number of people vacationing in Cuba grew from only 3,000 in 1973 to 326,000 in 1989, and to 2.3 million in 2005.

Yet tourism has intensified dissatisfaction with the government’s solutions to economic scarcity. Foreigners dine at well-stocked restaurants and shop in luxury stores, while Cubans not only do without luxury goods but many also go without subsistence items. The best hotels and beaches bar access to Cubans, who have been repeatedly told since the revolution that each citizen has the right to a share of all national goods. In order to gain access to dollars, many Cubans have left their traditional jobs to drive taxies and provide services in tourism. Prostitution, which was practically eliminated in the years following the revolution, has surpassed prerevolutionary levels. Often, the prostitutes are women and men with high levels of education, all of whom are anxious to have access to tourist dollars.

D

Mining

Cuba’s most abundant and profitable mineral export is nickel. Located in the eastern province of Holguín, Cuba’s nickel reserves are thought to be among the largest in the world. Prior to 1959, U.S. investors owned almost all the nickel mines. For this reason, the U.S. embargo specifically prohibited businesses that trade in Cuban nickel from trading with the United States. Even so, Canada defied U.S. orders to stop nickel investments and entered into joint ventures with Cuba. As a result of these joint ventures, the production of nickel almost doubled from 1995 to 2001. Cuba is also one of the world’s largest producers of cobalt. Other important minerals are copper, chromium, salt, stone, and natural gas.

Cuba’s petroleum deposits are scarce and yield high sulfur residues that corrode rigs and refineries. Few foreign investors have been willing to produce crude oil in Cuba. Nevertheless, production increased to 20.1 million barrels of oil and 350 million cu m (12.4 billion cu ft) of natural gas by 2003. The oil and gas help meet energy demand in Cuba’s thermal power plants as well as the energy needed to produce cement and asphalt.

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E

Biotechnology

After the U.S. embargo shut down medical supplies, Castro invested $150 million in the construction of the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Center. This state-of-the-art research lab has invented cholesterol-lowering drugs, detection tests for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a meningitis vaccine, remedies for hepatitis B, and other pharmaceuticals. Industrial manufacture of these medicines has exceeded domestic demand. Cuba has partnered with other nations to develop and export its pharmaceuticals.

F

Forestry and Fishing

Cuban forests were indiscriminately cut and reduced from more than 40 percent of the total land area in 1945 to less than 10 percent in 1960. The government undertook a reforestation program in the mid-1960s, and in 2005 forests covered 25 percent of the island. Almost all of the timber harvest is made up of hardwoods. Forested lands are located in western and eastern Cuba.

The fishing industry traditionally comprised small independent operators banded into cooperatives. The government, however, has developed a large deep-sea fleet. In the 1980s the government streamlined its administration of the industry and insisted that the fishing fleet support its own operations with money raised by the overseas sale of their catch. Cuba exports shrimp, red snapper, and tuna, and shellfish is one of Cuba’s most lucrative export items.

G

Manufacturing

Manufacturing has never played a major role in Cuba’s economy, largely because most financiers opted to invest their money in the lucrative sugar industry. Sporadically throughout the 20th century, Cubans tried to diversify the economy in order to create new avenues for income and additional opportunities for employment and technology. However, Cuba hindered efforts to diversify with poor planning and management. In addition, the U.S. economic blockade hurt these efforts.

In the early 1970s, Cuba undertook a program to automate its sugar industry. The dairy and cattle industries were also streamlined. Other major manufactures include cement, steel, refined petroleum, rubber and tobacco products, processed food, textiles, clothing, footwear, chemicals, and fertilizer.

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