U.S. firms sign more contracts for selling food to Cuba

HAVANA -- The Cuban government has signed a new round of contracts to buy $32 million of food from American agricultural firms, a trade group said Monday -- a move sure to whet the appetites of U.S. food companies eager to increase their sales to the island.

Cuba last year agreed to buy $35 million in American food to replenish its reserves after Hurricane Michelle battered the island in early November. The communist government at first said it would not buy any more U.S. food, then hinted it might -- especially if it saw positive signs from Washington.

The second round of sales has no link to the hurricane, the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council said in its weekly newsletter, released Monday.

There was no immediate word from the Cuban government, but authorities here said last month that they could purchase another $35 million worth of American food under the right circumstances.

Wheat, soy, corn, rice

Under one deal in this second round, Archer Daniels Midland Co., based in Decatur, Ill., will sell Cuba about 150,000 tons of wheat, soy, corn, and rice, worth $17.5 million, for delivery here beginning next month, the council newsletter said.

The Cuban food import company Alimport also is contracting with other American companies as well as an American subsidiary of a French company to buy additional grain and poultry, the newsletter added.

Agreeing to buy more food -- "will certainly influence positively the level of interest toward Cuba by United States companies, organizations, and the public sector," said council president John Kavulich.

The United States has maintained an embargo of Cuba for the last four decades.

However a U.S. law that went into effect in 2000 made it possible for American producers to sell food directly to the island.

However, the law prohibited U.S. public or private financing for the sales.

Cuba resents the financing restrictions and refused for nearly a year to buy American food -- until the hurricane struck.

In November 2001, Archer Daniels Midland became the first U.S.-based company to sell food directly from the United States to Cuba since 1963.

Since then, American companies have been pushing to sell more food and members of Congress have advocated legislation to allow U.S. financing for those sales.

"With each purchase of products -- whether agricultural, food, or health care -- the government of Cuba increases its influence in terms of the political debate regarding the expansion of the commercial relationship between the United States and Cuba," Kavulich said.