The United States and Cuba, adversaries since the 1960s, agreed to cooperate in improving food production and conserving natural resources as part of President Obama’s visit to Havana. The president said closer relations in agriculture may be a stepping stone toward ending the overall U.S. trade embargo on the island.
U.S. food and ag exports have been exempt from the embargo since 2000. The United States is a leading source of Cuban food imports although purchases are not as large as U.S. farm groups hope.
“With this visit, we’ve agreed to deepen our cooperation on agriculture to support our farmers and ranchers,” Obama said during a news conference with Cuban President Raul Castro, referring to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the nations’ agriculture ministers. Obama urged Congress to end the trade embargo and said Cuba should take steps as well “to show that it’s ready to do more business, which includes allowing more joint ventures and allowing foreign companies to hire Cubans directly.”
“If we build on the work that we’re doing in agriculture, and you start seeing more U.S. farmers interacting with Cuban farmers, and there’s more exports and imports — that builds a constituency and the possibility of ending the embargo increases,” Obama said.
The White House said the MOU on agriculture recognizes “the mutual interest of both countries in advancing agricultural technologies, agricultural productivity, food security and sustainable natural resource management.”
In addition, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack invited Cuban Agriculture Minister Gustavo Rodriguez Rollero to visit a USDA facility in Puerto Rico in May that is devoted to climate-change research. “During this visit, USDA and the Ministry of Agriculture will exchange information on tools and strategies for climate change response that help producers cope with challenges associated with drought, heat stress, excessive moisture, longer growing seasons, and changes in pest pressure,” said the White House.
Abelardo Alvarez Silva, president of a cooperative of small farmers, told Obama at a session on entrepreneurship that yields on his members’ farms, which grow potatoes, plantains, carrots, tomatoes, beets, sweet potatoes and fruit, were constrained by an antiquated irrigation system. “Our machinery is very old and we do not have spare parts,” said Alvarez. Cuban farmers are skilled, he said, “however, we have not been able to find all the [production] potential because of the absence of new technology.”
Obama said the MOU between the countries could lead to improvements in Cuban farms. “And the fact that Cuba is so close to the United States means that if you develop fruits and vegetables here, the ability to ship them and immediately get to markets where they can be purchased would be something that could make a big difference in terms of farm incomes here in Cuba.
“So this is an area where, again, it’s not going to happen overnight, but our hope is that as relationships between the two countries advance and develop, hopefully we’ll be getting you some new equipment sometime in the future,” said the president.
At present, imports of Cuban-grown food are barred.
Separately, the Commerce Department listed economic development that followed on Obama’s decision to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba, including plans by the Cleber LLC, based in Alabama, “to set up a tractor manufacturing facility in Cuba. This would directly employ Cuban workers and produce much-needed tractor equipment for agricultural production.” The U.S. Agricultural Coalition for Cuba “intends to advance a Cooperative Food and Agricultural Industry Agreement between food producers, processors, and supply chain participants both in the U.S. and Cuba,” said the Commerce Department.
Also during the trip, Vilsack said farmer-funded checkoff programs and marketing orders will be allowed to spend money in Cuba to promote U.S. foods. The USDA is not allowed to spend federal funds for market development in Cuba.