Cuban Foreign Minister visits Germany

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez visits Germany in response to an invitation by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The invitation was extended during Steinmeier’s visit to Cuba last year.

Steinmeier’s visit to the Cuban capital Havana came as Cuba and the United States were beginning to normalize their relations after a decades-long, U.S. enforced blockade against the Caribbean island State.

In addition to meeting his German counterpart, the Cuban Foreign Minister has a varied work program that includes meetings with representatives of local German authorities and focuses, among others, on boosting tourism.

Germany is one of Cuba’s leading sources of tourists. The share of German tourists is globally only surpassed by Canadian tourists. Trade between Cuba and Germany reached some 224 million euros or 241 million U.S. dollars in 2015, reports the Cuban State news agency Prensa Latina.

Cuban exports to Germany totaled 32.6 million euros or 35 million U.S. dollar last year. Most of these exports were products such as honey, cigars, rum and juices.
Organic farm, Alamar.

German exports to Cuba were mainly goods such as machinery and wheat by a value of 191.3 million euro or 219 million U.S. dollar. Increased German tourism could remedy some of that imbalance between imports and exports.

So could Cuba’s valued specialty, which is sustainable agriculture. Organic food products as well as know-how in the ecologic agriculture sector.

The decades-long economic blockade of Cuba has prompted Havana to develop highly efficient ecologic agriculture projects and technologies.