Agriculture Commissioner Mike strain is at the U.S. Agriculture Business Conference in Havana, Cuba to connect US rice and poultry exporters with potential Cuba importers. Strain says the country is in desperate need of food and that need continues to climb.
“Their going to import over $2 billion worth of food. Right now here in the United States we export about $300 million of that, but that could go up to half a billion or more.”
Strain is meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture to lay out logistics on the type of imports the country can handle.
The Cuban landscape is changing fast. With 80% of farmland privately owned by independent farmers or Co-op’s the issue will begin to look at how to get farmers the resources they need to be more productive.
“They don’t have fertilizer, the don’t have seeds, they don’t have pesticides. Water is an issue. So they are struggling. They have very little equipment.”
The Cuban government is asking not just to buy seeds and fertilizer from the US but also for assistance and expertise from US farmers to help them become more self-sustainable. Strain said that we need to have a presence in Cuba and if we don’t someone else will.
“If we’re not here then you’re going to have Russia and China here. Under the Monroe Doctrine anything in this hemisphere is our business.”
Comments