Cuba eyes soy beans for vacant sugar lands

HAVANA, May 6 (Reuters) - Cuba has begun soy bean production on 5,000 hectares of land formally dedicated to sugar cane, official radio reported on Tuesday, the first such effort to grow soy on the Caribbean island.

Radio Progreso, reporting on a meeting of sugar ministry officials in western Matanzas province, said Sugar Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro "talked about the singular project in Cuba to gow soy on 5,000 hectares in Matanzas," without providing further details.

Cuba has studied the possibility of growing soy for a number of years with advice from Canadian and South American experts.

A number of foreign companies have proposed joint ventures to grow soy, to no avail.

If successful, the Matanzas project would be extended to other provinces, a local agriculture expert said, asking not to be identified.

Cuba has closed some 90 sugar mills and relegated 60 percent of 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of sugar cane plantations to other uses since 2002, though much of the land remains fallow.

Cuban President Raul Castro termed increased agricultural output "a matter of national security" last week in the face of soaring international food prices which are expected to drain more than $2 billion this year from Cuba's coffers, or some 20 percent of imports.

The Communist-run country imports 85 percent of the basic food stuffs rationed to the population at subsidized prices, including all wheat and soy and most corn. (Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by John Picinich)