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U.S. food producers sign contracts with Cuba
"The answer to our differences is communication, not isolation. We should be tearing barriers down, not building barriers."
--Patty Judge, Iowa Agriculture Secretary
HAVANA (AP)--U.S. food producers pushed ahead on new trade with communist Cuba Dec. 15, signing the first contracts in three days of negotiations expected to result in as much as $130 million in new sales.
Scores of farmers, port operators and supermarket representatives from around the U.S. watched Dec. 15 as Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban import company, Alimport, signed contracts to buy $4.7 million in rice from Riceland Foods Inc., of Stuttgart, Ark.
Later, Alvarez signed contracts for Cuba to buy $700,000 in peas and lentils from PS International Ltd., of Chapel Hill, N.C., and $600,000 in chicken leg quarters from Gold Kist Inc., of Atlanta.
"How times have changed!" Alvarez said, noting that just two years ago there was no trade at all between the two countries, which have been without diplomatic ties for more than four decades.
Since Cuba took advantage of an exception to the U.S. trade embargo allowing the direct, commercial sales of U.S. farm products to the island, it has contracted to buy more than $500 million in goods, according to Alvarez.
Many more contracts were expected through the end of Dec. 10 as representatives of 147 firms from 29 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico mark the second anniversary of the first U.S. commercial food shipments to post-revolutionary Cuba.
Among the companies participating were Cargill Inc., of Minnetonka, Minn.; Archer Daniels Midland Co., of Decatur, Ill.; FC Stone of Des Moines, Iowa; and Kaehler's Homedale Farms in St. Charles, Minn. Also on hand were representatives of Carolina Turkey, of Mount Olive, North Carolina, and Crowley Liner Services of Jacksonville, Fla., which has transported about 70 percent of the U.S. food sold to Cuba over two years.
Many deals evidently were worked out ahead of time.
FC Stone, which represents 750 grain cooperatives throughout the U.S., last week received an advance order for nearly $7 million worth of corn. Company representative Chris Aberle, who was traveling to Havana later Dec. 15, said in a weekend telephone interview from the U.S. the contract was expected to be signed later in December.
Interest by U.S. food companies in doing business with Cuba has grown despite a tightening of restrictions on the island by the U.S. government, including stepped-up enforcement of rules on American travel.
Many of the farm representatives at this week's gathering favor an end to U.S. restrictions on trade with and American travel to the island.
"The answer to our differences is communication, not isolation," Iowa Agriculture Secretary Patty Judge told the gathering. "We should be tearing barriers down, not building barriers."
Judge also called for two-way trade between the two nations. "Cuban products must be allowed into my country," she said.
Cuba first used the law in late 2001 to replenish its food reserves after Hurricane Michelle caused wide damage across the country. It previously had balked at using the law, protesting its restrictions on U.S. financing for the sales.
The first shipment, $300,000 worth of chicken parts, sailed into Havana Bay from Gulfport, Miss., on Dec. 16, 2001.
Because the law prohibits U.S. financing for the transactions, the Cuban funds generally are shipped through European banks.
Cuban officials have said those roundabout funding transactions have cost the island at least $10 million because of bank fees and fluctuating foreign exchange rates.
Date: 1/8/04
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