Photo: Prensa Latina.
Rome, July 1 (RHC)-- Cuban Agriculture Minister Ydael Pérez is in Italy to participate in the 43rd Biennial Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a diplomatic source said Saturday.
Claudia González, counselor of the Cuban Embassy in this country, said in statements to Prensa Latina that the minister will carry out various activities at the event, which will run from July 1 to 7 in this capital, including a contact next Thursday afternoon with the director general of FAO, QU Dongyu.
González, who serves as deputy permanent representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations -FAO-, the World Food Program and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, based in Rome, said that Pérez and the members of the delegation accompanying him will also meet with other senior officials of these institutions.
Contacts will also be made with heads of Agriculture and other representatives of countries participating in this conference, added the diplomat, who is part of the delegation of the island attending the convention.
Perez is expected to speak at the plenary session of the forum and participate in several round tables, in which the remaining officials of the Cuban representation will be present, including Carlos Martin, director of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Completing the delegation are Yelitza García, head of the Department of Agricultural Policies of the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as Gabriela Gámez, third secretary of the diplomatic mission in Rome and alternate representative to the United Nations agencies based in this capital.
On June 20, during a visit to Rome, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel had a cordial exchange with QU at FAO headquarters, to whom he expressed "eternal gratitude for the unconditional and permanent support to Cuba" and highlighted the implementation of the National Plan for Food Sovereignty and Nutritional Education, with the help of that organization.
"We have also been working on the development of sustainable agriculture and food production systems," in the midst of the current conditions in which the Antillean nation finds itself, due to the U.S. blockade, he stressed.
"FAO can always count on the support of our country," the Cuban president wrote in the visitors' book at the end of the meeting.
For his part, the director general of that international organization stressed that Cuba has great potential to develop its agrifood systems, and to achieve this it requires support, with more investment in machinery, mechanization and cold chain storage.
