10/01/02

By AMY CONQUEST TAYLOR

Virginia agricultural products will soon find their way into the cupboards and refrigerators of Cuban citizens. At the first U.S. Food and Agribusiness Exhibition in Havana, Cuba, last week, representatives from the Harrisonburg, Va.-based Bowman Apple Products inked the first trade contract with Cuban government officials.
A second Virginia apple producer, Crown Orchard, based in Batesville, also signed a trade agreement at the five-day event.
Contracts for 10,000 tons of soft red winter wheat, soybean meal, soybean oil, wood products, dairy cattle and pork sales — all from the Commonwealth — were still under negotiation as of presstime.
“Virginia was the first to sign a contract at the exhibition,” said Elaine Lidholm, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services director of communications and media relations. “We sent representatives down to Cuba three weeks ago to start negotiations. We were ahead of the game.”
Lidholm added that Cuba had a keen interest in Virginia dairy cattle, with a high demand for the livestock, milk powder and semen.
Officials have begun to develop a protocol for health clearance for importing U.S. livestock.
The Virginia delegation — composed of Secretary of Commerce and Trade Mike Schewel, Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Carlton Courter, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service staff members Tom Sleight and Jim Green, in addition to representatives from various agricultural sectors — represented one of 33 states attending the exhibition.
As a result of the exhibition, a “great many” Maryland agricultural companies are negotiating trade contracts with Cuba, according to Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Hagner Mister.
Mister met with Cuban president Fidel Castro during his visit to the island nation.
“We talked about the opportunities trading would create for both countries as far as agriculture is concerned,” Mister said. “Currently, Cuba is importing about $1 billion of commodities per year. More than $120 million of that is from Maryland and we are looking to expand on that.
“Castro told me that he saw this as an opportunity for both countries and a great opportunity for American farmers,” Mister explained. “I agree with him, and I think we need to work closely with Cuba in order to conduct more trading.”
More than 280 companies attended the unprecedented event in an effort to recover a lost food market in Cuba.
Cuba’s top food importer, Pedro Alvarez, opened the exhibition Sept. 26, with the announcement that since December 2001, Cuba had purchased $140 million in U.S. grains, cereals, poultry and other products. He added that he expected that Cuba would buy about $50 million more before the U.S. Food and Agribusiness Exhibition was over.
As of Sept. 30, trade contracts totaling about $66 million had been signed.
For the past four decades, a U.S. trade embargo on Cuba has been in effect. An exception to the embargo, signed in 2000, allows heavily regulated food sales to Cuba on a cash basis.
Larger agricultural organizations such as Archer Daniels Midland and Cargil were represented at the exhibition and reported trade agreements for $9.7 million in rice and soy sales and $10 million in final grain and cereal sales respectively.
At a dinner banquet over the weekend, President Castro refuted the rumor that Cuba did not have the cash to back up its trade agreements, Mister said. Mister said Castro also spoke about the embargo at the banquet, adding that he would like to see the embargo lifted so Cuba could by more from its nearest neighbors, the United States.