Monday, March 26, 2007
By WILL WEISSERT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA -- Since 2003, one country has been the main supplier of food to
Fidel Castro's Cuba: the United States.
Surprised? You have good company.
Many Americans think their government's 45-year-old embargo blocks all
trade with the Communist government, but the United States is the top
supplier of food and agricultural products to Cuba. In fact, many Cubans
depend on rations grown in Arkansas and North Dakota for their rice and
beans.
Since December 1999, governors, senators and House members from at least
28 states have visited Cuba, most to talk trade. They keep coming:
Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman was flying in Sunday with a farm delegation.
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter of Idaho plans a visit next month.
Washington's sanctions choke off most trade with Cuba, but a law passed
by Congress in 2000 authorized cash-only purchases of U.S. food and
agricultural products and was cheered by major U.S. farm firms like
Archer Daniels Midland Co. interested in the untapped Cuban market.
Cuba refused to import one grain of rice for more than a year because of
a dispute over financing, but finally agreed to take advantage of the
law after Hurricane Michelle in November 2001 cut into its food stocks.
Since then, Cuba has paid more than $1.5 billion for American food and
agricultural products, said John Kavulich, senior policy adviser at the
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council of New York.
The $340 million in exports in 2006 represented a drop of about 3
percent from 2005, which was down from nearly $392 million in 2004.
Kavulich said the decline was caused mostly by generous subsidies and
credits from Venezuela and China.
But the United States remains on top. Its main exports to Cuba include
chicken, wheat, corn, rice and soybeans -- much of it doled out to
Cubans on the government ration.
The United States also sends Cuba brand-name cola, mayonnaise, hot sauce
and candy bars, as well as dairy cows.
Kirby Jones, founder of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association in Washington,
said Cuba's food import company Alimport has an entire department
dedicated to American purchases.
Jones was in Cuba this month with Arkansas chicken exporters, Nebraska
bean growers and officials from the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas.
"Hundreds and hundreds of American executives have come down here," he
said. "[Cuban officials] know how to talk to us."
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