US farm delegation sizes up prospects with Cuba visit
Havana (AFP) - An American food and farm industries delegation visited Cuba on Monday, sizing up the potential for doing bigger business with the Americas' only communist-run nation.
US President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro took the world by surprise in December when they announced their decision to seek closer relations and end more than half a century of enmity.
But US economic sanctions on Havana largely have to be lifted by the US Congress before normal business can take place.
"We know and understand the majority of the US Congress actually agrees with us (that US economic sanctions should end)," said Devry Boughner Vorwerk.
"There is a small (US congressional) minority that does not agree."
Vorwerk, who leads the group United States Agriculture Coalition for Cuba, was heading a delegation of 96 people on a three-day stay.
Cuba buys food from US companies, but economically feeble Havana only is allowed to do so in cash, which makes expanding US business tougher.
Vorwerk, an executive with Cargill, which provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services, said: "US rice producers would like to serve the Cuban market with high-quality US rice."
"We are not here only to talk about one-way trade, we are not here to talk about us exporting to Cuba. We are here to talk about two-way trade," she told a news conference.
"We are (also) here to understand how Cuban farmers would like to engage the trade relationship. We are here to take a look at and understand what Cuban farmers produce, what they have the potential to produce."
