Cuban News Agency

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Madrigal Valdes made the former statements during the annual assessment
meeting of the Regional Delegation of the Cuban Ministry for Foreign Trade
and Foreign Investment (MINCEX) of the central province of Ciego de Avila.

Trade with the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
America (ALBA) namely Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, and with others
outside the bloc such as Brazil saw a considerable growth in 2011,
Madrigal Valdes noted.

This commercial exchange, carried out mostly thorough bilateral
cooperation projects and based on mutual respect and lack of interest, has
been firmed up for a wide range of services and products, among them:
health, education and sports services, sugar, shrimp, citrus fruits and
charcoal, of which are known for their high quality as compared with
similar international offers.

In the central province of Ciego de Avila alone, 25 new products were
added to the island’s list of export items, among them plastics, charcoal,
Arecha rum, different types of juice.

Meanwhile, MINCEX’s specialist Hector Jimenez Perez said that on the
concept of imports substituted with local products, more than four million
dollars were saved to the country last year in this central province,
particularly regarding meat, produces and canned food; as well as
furniture, metal structures, solar heaters and scrap metal.