Former British Treasury Minister Philip Oppenheim has signed an agreement with the Cuban government to allow his company, The Cuba Mountain Coffee Company, to invest in coffee cultivation on the island and buy high quality coffee from Cubans growers.
According to London based The Telegraph, the agreement stipulates that during the next five years, the British company will invest four million dollars in improving farming techniques, and financing for the purchase of fertilizers and equipment to small coffee farmers in the eastern provinces of Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba.
With this investment, The Cuba Mountain Coffee Company will have the exclusive for high quality Arabica coffee beans in the UK market for the Alma de Cuba brand that the company launched last December.
According to the website, Alma de Cuba is a gourmet coffee that is marketed on the Internet at a price of $49 per 1 kilogram package.
Oppenheim said his company invests in nurseries and other methods to select the best beans. It turns out to be a symbiotic relationship. The company gets high quality beans and the farmers get what they need to grow more of them.
The name Alma de Cuba bears the name of a glittering restaurant bar in what was once the church of San Pedro and San Pablo, in Liverpool, but it is unclear if that business is associated with the coffee brand.
Oppenheim is also the owner of Cubana, a restaurant located in southeast London, which typical serves dishes from ranging from "ropa vieja" to roast pork. The bar sells drinks like the Cuban rum Bucanero and Cristal beer.
Oppenheim's foray into the coffee business in Cuba is not the first for the former British official. About ten years ago, he explored opportunities to commercialize Cuban rum and tobacco, but other firms established in the international market dashed his hopes.
The agreement with the Cuban authorities and The Cuba Mountain Coffee Company occured as part of a business forum with British businessmen held in Havana on Tuesday.
Business Ambassador of the Office of Trade and Investment in the UK, Brian Wilson, and Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba ( CCC ), Omar Fernandez led the meeting, which focused on issues related to tourism, renewable energy, biotechnology and agribusiness.
"One goal of the event is to disseminate the best aspects of the Cuban economy amid the economic adjustment process and the socialist updates in the country," Fernandez reported to the press.
According to the work agenda for Thursday, individual meetings between British and Cuban firms are expected to take place.
h/t The Telegraph
h/t The Telegraph
