His goal, he says, is to give Cuban farmers a way to make a living at a time when so many have given up on it and moved to urban areas. "If we don't want foreign companies to come in and dominate Cuban agriculture all over again, that means we need to give Cuban families a way to stay on their farms," said Funes, who grew up at an agricultural research station where his father, a crop scientist, and his mother, a biologist, both worked.
Costa Rica's third country organic accreditation with EU countries allowed local organic producers to send coffee for the first time to Estonia last year, while pineapple producers sold for the first time to France and Switzerland.