U.S. remains Cuba’s top food source

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.

Since December 1999, governors, senators and congressmen and women from at least 28 U.S. states have visited Cuba, most to talk trade. They keep coming: Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman was flying in Sunday with a farm delegation. Gov. Butch Otter of Idaho plans a visit next month.

The U.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 companies, such as 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 November 2001, when Hurricane Michelle 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 U.S. 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 name-brand 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.

Cuban parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon has said Havana does not expect the U.S. embargo to be eased under President Bush. The current administration tightened restrictions in 2004, further limiting U.S. travel and imposing stricter rules for Cuban payments on U.S. goods.

Don Mason of the Iowa Corn Growers Association agreed, saying he was “less than optimistic” Washington will make it easier to trade with Cuba any time soon. He said the association ships some 450,000 metric tons of corn to the island each year.

Any significant change in U.S. policy would be difficult under the 1996 Helms-Burton law, which prohibits normalization of relations with Cuba as long as 80-year-old Fidel Castro or his brother Raul are in charge. Fidel Castro temporarily ceded power to Raul after intestinal surgery in July.

Some believe American interest in Cuba’s new oil exploration efforts could change the political tide.

The island plans deep-water drilling, searching for deposits of crude oil less than 100 miles from Florida’s coast. Energy companies from China, India, Spain and elsewhere are interested in investing, but American firms are shut out.

U.S. senators Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, and Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, introduced a measure this month that would open Cuban waters to U.S. oil and natural gas companies.