Country Profile: Cuba - American Memory - Library of Congress

Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Cuba, September 2006
As a result of a reforestation program, forests covered 21 percent of Cuban territory by the mid-
1990s, as compared with only 18 percent in 1987. By 2005, the figure had reached 24 percent,
and a new reforestation program was under way with a target of increasing coverage to 29
percent by 2015. The forestry programs expand the tree-covered area by 50,000 hectares each
year. In comparison, the tree-covered area is expanded by less than 20,000 hectares per year
when logging is used. Roundwood production in 2000 amounted to 3.3 million cubic meters and
sawn wood to 146,000 cubic meters. Official Cuban figures show that the country’s forests in
2006 held more than 130 million cubic meters of usable lumber and had the potential to grow 7.5
million cubic meters annually. However, reforestation in general has suffered from funding and
other resource shortages since the 1990s.
Although Cuba’s annual fish catch was approximately 130,000 tons before the economic crisis of
the 1990s, the total dropped by about two-thirds between 1990 and 1994 as a result of a lack of
investment, fuel, and operating capital, and the fishing industry has yet to recover. There had
been some potential for making up part of the shortfall in the 1990s by developing fish farming.
By 1998 the fisheries of Cuba’s man-made reservoirs, totaling an estimated 148,000 hectares,
had become the main source of fish for domestic consumers, with production totaling more than
70,000 tons, as compared with only 7,000 tons in 1980. By 2004, however, the output of fish
farms and production (for export) of lobster and shrimp from coastal fisheries had shrunk to
below the 1993 level (less than 20,000 tons), apparently as a result of an aging fishing fleet,
increasingly expensive fuel, and fuel shortages.
Mining and Minerals: Mining accounted for 1.4 percent of the gross domestic product in 2005.
Cuba is now the world’s fifth-largest nickel and cobalt producer. Production of Cuba’s primary
mineral, nickel, was estimated to reach about 77,000 tons in 2005, an increase of more than 6
percent over 2004. The country’s mineral resources are mined mostly by Canadian, Spanish, and
other European companies.
Cuban oil production is currently limited to the coastal region in the northwest of the country.
Cuba’s crude is very heavy and has a high sulphur content. Nevertheless, high world oil prices
have stimulated foreign interest in Cuban territorial waters in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1999 Cuba
opened 112,000 square kilometers of its waters to foreign exploration. As of 2006, companies
from Canada, China, India, Norway, and Spain have invested in drilling ventures in these waters.
Industry and Manufacturing: Industry in general accounted for about 25 percent of gross
domestic product (GDP) in 2005 and was expected to increase slightly to 26.9 percent in 2006.
Industrial production growth totaled 3.3 percent in 2004 and 5.1 percent in 2005 and was
forecast to reach 13 percent in 2006 and 7.8 percent in 2007. Manufacturing accounted for 15.4
percent of GDP and construction for 7.0 percent in 2005. Power cuts and the contraction of
sugar-related industries have hampered growth in the manufacturing sector except for a few
industries, such as production of nickel and steel, neither of which is dependent on the electricity
grid, and construction, which has benefited from the government’s housing program and
improvements to hospitals and schools. Growth in the construction sector reached 19 percent in
2005. The government’s housing program that was approved in September 2005 envisaged the
construction of 150,000 new homes by the end of 2006 and an additional 100,000 in 2007,
representing the fastest pace of building since 1959. The actual totals may be somewhat lower.
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