Reuters/Havana

The most important US agricultural delegation to visit Cuba in more than a decade began three days of meetings yesterday, hoping to find potential business partners and urge the US Congress to lift the trade embargo against the Caribbean nation.
Two former agriculture secretaries, a number of state agriculture officials and representatives of various state farm bureaus are among the 95 people whose visit was organised by the US Agriculture Coalition for Cuba, formed after the December 17 announcement that the US and Communist-run Cuba would restore diplomatic relations.
“The message we hope will get back to Washington is that we are a unifying voice that would like to see Congress act in 2015 and end the embargo,” Cargill executive Devry Boughner Vorwerk, chairwoman of the coalition, said.
The coalition says US farmers are hungry for the $2bn market so close to home and frustrated by US restrictions.
“We understand our competitors are here - Argentina, Brazil, the Europeans - and our hands are being tied behind our backs by our own government,” Vorwerk said.
While President Barack Obama has loosened some trade and travel restrictions, most of the embargo remains in place and can only be ended by Congress, now in Republican control.
The coalition was formed in January to lobby Congress to normalise trade relations.
The US created an embargo exception in 2000 to allow food sales, but it still denies Cuba credit, forcing it to pay cash up front.
US food sales to Cuba fell in 2014 to $291mn from $349mn in 2013 and far from the $710mn peak in 2008, according to the US-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
Cuba imports between 60% and 70% of its food, which came to $2bn worth in 2014.
The Freedom to Export to Cuba Act introduced in the Senate would eliminate all trade restrictions, but the Republican leadership opposes the bill in both houses of Congress.
At a welcoming dinner on Sunday, soy farmer Mark Albertson marvelled at the crowd.
“There is sorghum, rice, corn, wheat, soy beans; all the commodities are here,” said Albertson, director of strategic marketing of the Illinois Soy Bean Association. “It is one thing to compete with Brazil for the Chinese market, but embarrassing when our own government stops us from being competitive in our own backyard.”



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