Baracocoa, delights announced
Raquel Sierra, Sunday September 7, 2025
With the new joint venture for processing cocoa, the idea is impelling production and exports in the Guantanamo province -precisely where production is higher. Baracocoa S.A. a joint venture among the Cuban food and beverage corporations Alimcor S.A. and the Slovak firm Proxenta a.s., a new entity emerges as a first experience of this kind in Guantanamo. The new firm, approved by the Council of Ministers in Cuba, signed by Dariel Lamadrid Martin (directive of Alimcor) and by Paul Kozik (president of the Proxenta Group), was created to process, produce and commercialize chocolates and a range of cocoa and chocolate derived assortments, mixes and premixes, pasta and fats associated with confectionery.
According to both parties they are interested in working together for the success of the Baracocoa S.A. joint venture, whose fruits would impact both the development of the Cuban economy and benefit the Cuban population while stimulating cocoa producers in the eastern area of Baracoa to higher levels of production.
According to Javier Francisco Aguiar Rodríguez, first vice-minister of Food Industry (Minal), the creation of this company is not only a business achievement but also a bridge that unites the cultures, knowledge and markets of both countries. He thanked the president of the Proxenta a.s. group for his decision in investing and joining forces with Alimcor S.A. that makes possible combining deep international experience, advanced technology and access to global markets with our knowledge of local markets, production, distribution network and consumer preferences.
There is an underlying commitment to innovation and product quality, he added, to satisfy increasingly demanding consumers while betting in favor of mutual and sustainable growth. This new alliance, he added, will generate economic opportunities, favor the development of cocoa production in Baracoa and create valuable employment benefiting both parties and the communities connected with the joint venture.
The Cuban commercial market, still regulated, lacks productive capacity, therefore, total sale in the domestic market is guaranteed. The official page of Proxenta explains that growing national demand and gradual recovery of tourism allow for an increase of productive capacity.
This is the second joint venture constituted by a Slovak enterprise in Cuba. Dedicated to confectionery, Proxcor joined Caibarien in the Villa Clara province in 2019 holding a 51 percent majority participation and with a signed contract for 25 years. When Proxcor-Caibarien achieves full productive capacity, as planned for 2027, it would produce 17 000 tons of confectionery per year and be able to import substitution. Proxcor-Caibarien will produce and commercialize basic lines: cookies, wafers, hard candies with and without filling and cereals.
The Foreign Investment Universe in Cuba
Until June this year (2025) Cuba had 374 foreign investment contracts -Contracts of International Economic Association (Contratos de Asociación Económica Internacional CAEI), joint ventures and totally foreign corporations -as per the Report Institutional Organization. Main Entities from the National Office of Statistics and Information (Informe Organización Institucional. Principales entidades, de la Oficina Nacional de Estadística e Información (ONEI).
Of those 374, 183 are within the CAEI designation, 125 are joint ventures, and 66 are foreign corporations, the greater volume of foreign investment concentrates in Havana -with 185 of them.
Of the total of foreign investment the larger concentrates into hotels and restaurants (148), manufacturing industries follow (84), business services (28), commerce (27), mining and quarrying exploitation (20), electricity supply (15), transportation (12), financial intermediation (7) and agriculture, livestock, hunting and forestry (5).
In Havana are 70 contracts of the CAEI total, 88 joint ventures and 27 foreign corporations. In Artemisa there are 56, in Matanzas 44, in Ciego de Ávila 24, in Villa Clara 18, in Holguín 10, in Sancti Spíritus 8, in Santiago de Cuba 7, in Mayabeque and Cienfuegos 6, in Camagüey 4, in Las Tunas and Granma 2 and in Pinar del Río and the Special Municipality of Island of Youth one in each.
The statistical analysis of ONEI shows that Baracocoa S.A. would be the first foreign investment option in the most eastern provinces of Cuba.
Translation by NSCUBA (Nova Scotia)
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