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    "localId": "486500592",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Cuba, Situation Report 29",
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    "id": "486500592",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Cuba, Situation Report 29",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/486500592",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 23,
            "logicalDate": "1948-12-23",
            "month": 12,
            "year": 1948
        }
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{
    "seq": 26,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875511/875511-02-026.tif",
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    "ocrText": "important customer for Cuban tobacco. Spain, Canada, and Switzerland buy only\nsmall amounts. Furthermore, the cigar industry has been handicapped by the US\ntariff policy which favors the importation of unmanufactured tobacco.\nFaced with an inability to market the present tobacco crop, the stabilization\nboard decreed a ceiling on 1947-48 production and administers a fund to purchase,\nstore, and ultimately, it is hoped, sell excess tobacco. Future prospects are not good,\nthough Cuba looks hopefully to ECA as a means of enabling European nations to buy\nmore Cuban cigars.\nCoffee is grown in Cuba, though at greater cost than in Brazil and other Latin\nAmerican countries. A protective tariff policy inaugurated in 1930 stimulated pro-\nduction. Though the 1947-48 crop was one of the largest on record, increased Cuban\npurchasing power caused the supply to be insufficient, and Brazilian and Dominican\ncoffee was imported. Importation and distribution of imported coffee are controlled\nby the government to prevent competition between imported and domestic coffee.\nProduction for 1947 was 589,000 bags (132.276 lbs. per bag) as compared with 381,000 in\n1946.\nAs a result of wartime scarcities, as well as the intermittent search for new\nindustries in Cuba, efforts have been made to grow various plants as possible sources of\nfiber for cordage. Most successful to date has been henequen, to which 38,000 acres\nhave been planted. Production reached a peak of over 30 million lbs. in 1946, but\ndeclined slightly in 1947. A US cooperative fiber research project has endeavored to\ndevelop the growing of kenaf as a material for the making of sugar bags. Prospects\nfor commercial operation are considered good. Ramie and other plants have been tried\nwithout much success.\nBananas and plantains, though important to the domestic food supply, are of\nminor importance in Cuba's international trade. Plantations for organized export\nexist in Oriente province. In 1947, 4.2 million bunches of bananas were exported, val-\nued at $2.7 million. One and three-tenths million lbs. of plantains were exported also,\nvalued at $26,000.\nRoot crops such as yuca and malanga constitute important items of the Cuban\ndiet but are rarely exported in any form. Yuca is also an important source of commer-\ncial starch.\nPeanuts have become an important field crop. Peanut oil is now used as a\nsubstitute for olive oil, formerly imported.\nCattle-growing has always provided a large share of Cuban agricultural in-\ncome, though exports are insignificant. Normally, the number of livestock per capita\nin Cuba is exceeded only in Australia and Argentina. Meat production, however, has\nbarely met domestic requirements for years, leaving scant margin for export. Higher\nprices for cattle in the early years of World War II stimulated export SO that the total\nnumber of cattle in Cuba was reduced. This fact, plus the reluctance of growers to sell\nat the unrealistically low ceiling prices imposed by the Cuban government, has led to\nperiodic meat shortages in Havana and to the importation of $2.7 million of meat\nproducts in 1947. Cattle growers have received little technical aid or advice from their\n19"
}