The main thing that made me focus on Cuba was realizing that Cuba is a diamond in the rough in the Caribbean and that I personally thought there were some opportunities there that the farmers of Alabama were missing. By the geographical location of Alabama and the Port of Mobile, I thought it was nothing but right for Alabama to be aggressive and try to create and promote trade with Cuba after Congress gave us leeway.�

How I got started was to take a trip to Washington to the Cuban Interest Section. I sat down and talked to Ambassador Rodriquez. I asked them if they could line me up with the right people to start talking with. It was then arranged for me to take a delegation to Cuba where we sat down and talked to Pedro Alvarez, Chairman and CEO of Cuba’s food import company, Alimport.�

I told them my intentions, what I wanted to do and what we had in Alabama that they might have an interest in. I told him about the Port of Mobile and how other states could send their exports to them through the Port of Mobile. I told him how it took less than 40 hours to ship goods to Cuba from the Port of Mobile. We then sat down with trade negotiators to talk about the products we had to offer. We have been very successful in continuing to build that relationship and helping companies in Alabama put some of those contracts together.

Farming News:

Alabama has sold Cuba chicken, snack foods, wood and cotton. Looking ahead, what other agricultural goods do you see our producers sending?

Commissioner Sparks:

It’s true that we’ve been very successful with our wood products. Certainly, poultry is a big item where Cuba is now ranked eighth in poultry importerhttps://www.alafarmnews.com/files/0205archive/s from alabama. they buy the dark meat or the hindquarters that our producers need to move since the russians stopped buying them and put our poultry farmers in a bind. in addition to that, we’ve had the opportunity to sell them grains through alabama farmers co-op. we’ve sold them catsup, gatorade, ice cream and we’re in the process of looking at some of our chip or cookie products.�

Farming News:

Oil has been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico in an area under Cuba’s control. Development of a new coal-fired thermoelectric power plant is in the works and expansion of another is under way. As Cuba spends less on energy, why shouldn’t they spend that money on their tourism infrastructure, which, after all, is their most profitable industry? Why spend it on food from Alabama?

Commissioner Sparks:

The way they can spend it on products from Alabama is through the money made by their tourist trade. They have a lot of tourists. The only people that can’t travel to Cuba are the people from the United States.�

There are over seventy countries that see the potential there and have partnered with Cuba in business deals, building the infrastructure needed by erecting the five star hotels and restaurants. Other infrastructure opportunities in Cuba are transportation, electrical and communications.�

Education is a very high priority among the Cubans with a literacy rate at about 99%. I’ve had the good fortune to go to biotech centers and talk to the doctors about the research that’s going on there. Cuba has made leaps and bounds toward possibly curing cancer. What if Cuba and the United States partnered and we could save one life with our combined medical technologies. That’s another reason why we need normalized relations.�

Do we open all the doors and all the windows? No. I think we should move in a cautious manner but I still think we need to be moving forward rather than backward. Unfortunately, we can’t do that right now. There are other folks doing it. Even if the embargo is lifted tomorrow, the United States will be on the outside because we’re not helping to build that infrastructure…we have no investment there.�

Farming News: