World Grain - February 2008 - 23

COUNTRYFOCUS

President Bill Clinton signed legislation
that changed the U.S.-Cuba trade relationship by enacting certain exceptions
for agricultural and medical exports.
There are certain restrictions on agricultural trade. For example, Cuba has
to pay for the goods before the vessel
leaves the U.S. Because there is no
banking connection between the U.S.
and Cuba, it must pay in cash.
Those restrictions have forced Cuba
to look outside the U.S. for rice. "Ex-

Alimport, signs the contract.
Alimport is important because it has
a huge budget, Jones said. "Only with
the U.S. does it have a monopoly on
signing contracts."
MOVES TO SUPPORT AGRICULTURE
The need to import large quantities
of food has made encouraging agricul-

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"Cuba has the largest per
capita consumption of rice in
the Americas by far."

ture an important issue. Jones said (acting president) Raul Castro has made
it a priority to talk about low levels of
production in Cuba.
"Food is becoming very expensive,"
he said. "The price of corn has gone way
up and so the price of food has gone way
up," he said. "He has increased the land
available to private farmers and made

- Marvin Lehrer,
USA Rice Federation

ports (from the U.S. to Cuba) rose to
about 175,000 tonnes in the calendar
year 2004," Lehrer said. "We sold them
one-third of their consumption. That
has fallen away. In calendar year 2007,
it was about 60,000 tonnes."
Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.Cuba Trade Association, explained that
Alimport is responsible for the import
of all food products into Cuba from
around the world. "It is not responsible for the import of other products,"
he said. "They spend a little over $1.5
billion a year on food imports."
The U.S. law that allows agricultural
products to be sold to Cuba is defined
widely. "The majority of it is food:
wheat, corn (maize), rice, soybeans,
frozen chicken," Jones said. "Also included are things like utility poles,
wood products, paper."
Jones said that for the vast majority of
food products Alimport signs the contract
and is the distributor, because they are
things like bulk grains. For other products, Alimport does sign the contract but
is acting as an agent for other Cuban entities. For example, if a Cuban entity like
the Ministry of Basic Industries needs
utility poles, if they come from the U.S.,

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World Grain - February 2008

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