While U.S. farm groups see Cuba as a natural, nearby market for exports, growers in Florida worry that Cuba will be a competitor in agriculture, says the Miami Herald. Janell Hendren of the Florida Farm Bureau told the Herald, “You can’t lift the [trade] embargo without increasing imports from Cuba to the United States. And we are very concerned with imports.” Agricultural economist William Messina at U-Florida says Cuba and Florida grow many of the same products – sugar, citrus, vegetables, tropical fruit and fish.
“So for Florida, trade with Cuba is really going to represent competition in a way that’s different than for the other 49 states,” Messina told the Herald. Trade also would open a new potential route for pests and disease to enter the United States.
“Our estimates indicate that U.S. food and agricultural exports to Cuba have the potential to exceed $1 billion annually,” said economist C. Parr Rosson of Texas A&M at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on agricultural trade with Cuba. Sales were $284 million in 2014, chiefly poultry, soybeans, soymeal and corn. Cuba’s leading agricultural exports are sugar, tobacco and rum. Cuba imports 80 percent of its food, often facilitated by favorable prices and financing. Its ability to pay cash for imports is constrained by its ability to generate revenue.
Officials from the Treasury, Commerce and Agriculture departments said the scope of President Obama’s decision in late 2014 to normalize relations with Cuba was limited by the 1962 trade embargo. Most transactions remain prohibited. Under the administration’s initiative, it will be easier for Cuba to deposit a payment for food purchases but only cash sales are allowed. Agriculture Undersecretary Michael Scuse said U.S. ag sales to Cuba were circumscribed because financing cannot be offered.
Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts said any decision “regarding increased trade with Cuba must be made carefully” by Congress and the administration. “Foreign policy does not happen in a vacuum. We have to take a realistic approach and work out a step by step plan towards lifting the embargo.”
To read testimony submitted by witnesses or to watch a video of the Agriculture Committee hearing, click here. To read Roberts’ opening statement, click here.