California Farmer$ Fanta$ize about Million$ from Cuba

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

Part IV in our series 
"Making Cuba Safe for American Agribusiness"


The Modesto Bee - June 6, 2002

End of Trade Embargo Could Mean Millions for California Farmers,
Lawmakers Say

By Jim Miller  

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--California's agricultural industry would realize
tens of millions of dollars in new business if the United States
dropped restrictions on trade with Cuba, lawmakers and industry
officials said Wednesday at a Capitol hearing.

While California's distance from the communist nation would put it at
a trading disadvantage for some products, the $27 billion agriculture
industry still would benefit from giving U.S. farmers unfettered
access to the Cuban market, speakers said.

  With open trade, farmers in other states, such as poultry producers
in the South and on the East Coast, would be more likely to sell
their goods in Cuba instead of in California producers' markets.

"The bottom line is that the trade embargo and the visitation embargo
are outrageous," said Bill Mattos, president of the Modesto-based
California Poultry Federation, who visited Cuba in April.

Wednesday's joint hearing of Senate trade and agriculture committees
comes as some politicians in Sacramento and Washington call for
better relations with Cuba, a Cold War nemesis that remains an enemy
for President Bush and many other elected leaders.

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, has introduced
legislation calling for normalized relations with Cuba. Another state
lawmaker's bill proposes to make California and Cuba sister states.
Sen.

Barbara Boxer recently led a delegation to the country.

From December through April, Cuba purchased an estimated $36 million
in U.S. agricultural products. The cash-only sales are allowed under
an exemption to the U.S. trade embargo.

None of them, though, has involved California. Producers in other
states, meanwhile, have shipped thousands of metric tons of frozen
poultry, grains, soy and other goods.

Wednesday, speakers estimated that the trade barriers cost the
state's agricultural industry about $90 million annually.

Poultry was a $1 billion a year industry in California in 2000, with
Stanislaus and Merced counties having some of the highest totals in
the state.

Much of the state's product is destined for customers close to home,
Mattos said. But some frozen poultry products from California could
wind up in the Cuban market, he said.

"We're willing to ship anywhere as long as people are willing to buy
it, and we can make a deal happen," he said.

California also is a large producer of dried beans, another product
highly sought in Cuba.

State Sen. Mike Machado, chairman of the Senate Banking, Commerce and
International Trade Committee, said increased trade with Cuba can
only help California agriculture.

"The effect, though while not large, would still be better than what
it is for those of us who have two years' worth of beans in storage,"
said Machado, a Linden farmer.

Only Democrats attended Wednesday's hearing; all who spoke supported
lifting the U.S. trade embargo. State Sen. Dick Monteith, R-Modesto,
vice chairman of the banking panel and a member of the Senate
Agriculture and Water Resources, did not attend.

Later, Monteith aide Bob Rucker said the senator, who is running for
Congress, supports expanding agricultural trade with Cuba as a way to
steer it toward capitalism.

"Agriculture needs all the help we can give it," Rucker said.

source - JosePertierra@aol.com
 
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