Issue 24
Prairie Grains Magazine
1999

Prairie Grains is the official publication of the Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, North Dakota Grain Growers Association, South Dakota Wheat, Inc. and the Minnesota Barley Growers Assocation.

Copyright Prairie
Grains Magazine
Nov/Dec  1999

"Reaching Out" to Cubans

By Alan Tracy, USW  President

There is an island nation not far from the U.S. On that island, each person is guaranteed one 80-gram bread roll a day. In the U.S., 90 miles away, millions of tons of wheat are shipped to faraway ports but, except during a few humanitarian emergencies, none go to the island where people are entitled to one bread roll a day. The U.S. government declares that it wants to "reach out" to the people of the island but, sorry, no wheat can be shipped because the U.S. does not want to "support" the island government. So the ships pass by the island and the people continue to get their one bread roll a day.

Cuba. So close, yet so far away for wheat exports.

At the beginning of this year, President Clinton announced an easing of export restrictions to Cuba. There is a major catch, however. The sanctions, which are stipulated by law, do not allow products to be sold to the Cuban government. The five flour mills in Cuba are owned by the government. Ergo, no U.S. wheat can be sold into Cuba. Instead, Cuba imports up to a million tons a year from European countries, Argentina and, to a lesser extent, from Canada, at double the freight costs that it would take to bring wheat from the U.S. Gulf.

The situation is a stalemate. U.S. State Department officials explain that the Cuban government must transition to private ownership in order to allow shipments of wheat and other agricultural commodities into Cuba. Cuban officials, on the other hand, indicate they have no intention of changing their system and, indeed, have developed plans to build four new flour mills under the current ownership system.

Where do we go from here?

The U.S. sells wheat to numerous public sector authorities across the world, but without congressional action there are no prospects of it happening in Cuba, despite recent comments by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman that "embargoes are counter-productive in regards to agriculture" and that we should be able to "...sell to anyone anything they can't shoot back at you."

It seems strange that the Baltimore Orioles can play baseball in Cuba, but wheat can't get to first base until Congress acts. When they do then, maybe, someday, a child in Cuba can be assured of getting two bread rolls a day.

Although the U.S. is not yet allowed to sell wheat to Cuba, USW continues to lay the groundwork for eventual sales.  Here, USW vice president Paul Dickerson is shown visiting a "rations shop" in Havana, during a recent market assessment trip.