The move to normalize U.S.-Cuba ties after 54 years of diplomatic estrangement is reviving hopes among Idaho's agricultural interests for new markets for down-home staples ranging from beef and pork products to dried lentils and, of course, potatoes.
Gov. Butch Otter, who led a trade mission to Cuba in 2007 and made earlier visits there as a congressman, told the Idaho Statesman last week that he disagreed "with the process the president used" to thaw relations between the two countries. But Otter endorsed the outcome "if the final product is actually to get us in the same mindset."
The resumption of limited diplomatic and economic ties, announced Dec. 17 by President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, came after more than a year of secret talks between the two countries. A White House fact sheet sets forth key parts of the agreement, including the easing of travel and financial restrictions, improved telecommunications links and progress toward ending the U.S. trade embargo imposed in 1960, two years after Cuban communists came to power.
Cubans, who import more than 80 percent of their food, bought $150 million worth of wheat from the European Union last year, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said. The United States exported nearly $368 million in agriculture and related products to Cuba in 2010, according to a Texas A&M study, though law and federal policy limit those exports.
Moran estimated that easing restrictions on Cuba and lifting the travel ban could result in $365 million in additional sales of U.S. agricultural products and boost the U.S. economy by $1.1 billion.
Estimates from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Cuban government put the 54-year cost of the embargo at $1.1 trillion to the Cuban economy, and at $1.2 billion annually to the U.S. economy.
"As those trade restrictions on the logistics loosen up, it will certainly provide opportunity for agricultural exports," said Laura Johnson, who went on the 2007 trade mission and is bureau chief of the Idaho Department of Agriculture's market development division. "It's hard to tell right away what that impact could be ... It is definitely a step forward. It could be a very long process."
Johnson said the 2007 delegation found demand for a wide range of products including beef, pork, dairy products, wheat, barley, potatoes, seed, dried beans and malt.
Frank Muir, president and CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission, was another member of the 2007 delegation. He recalled going on a morning run in and around Havana, looking for open markets that sold potatoes. He eventually found one with a small basket of potatoes. The delegation saw no spuds at a potato farm they visited, which they were told had been recently harvested, he said.
"We don't know very much about the marketplace," Muir said, estimating the Cuban potato market would not be as large as an individual U.S. state market.
"It's probably prudent to wait to see how this all shakes out, see what decisions the federal government makes," Muir said. "But if the governor decides to make another trade visit, I can promise that the Idaho Potato Commission will be there by his side."
Moran has asked the U.S. Treasury Department to loosen restrictions on exporting wheat to Cuba, something that could happen through rule-making. And fellow Kansas Republican Sen. Pat Roberts said he'd be willing to lead discussions with the White House to lift the embargo through legislation. Roberts is in line to become the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee in January, when Republicans take over Congress.
"I would like to sell Cuba wheat products, and, for that matter, all sorts of agriculture products," Roberts said.
Source: Idaho Statesman