Cuba seeks Brazil aid to boost farm production

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SAO PAULO, Nov 11 (Reuters): Cuba is seeking a credit of $200 million from Brazil to import agricultural machinery and technology in hopes of increasing food output and reducing its reliance on imports, a Brazilian official said Friday. The communist island thinks the aid will allow it to double its production of grains, which would enable it to meet its domestic demand, said Francesco Pierri, chief international advisor in Brazil's Ministry of Agrarian Development. "They are very ambitious goals," he told the news agency in a telephone interview from Havana. Brazilian Agrarian Development Minister Afonso Florence was in the Cuban capital on Friday to sign a technical cooperation agreement with the Cuban government, Pierri said.