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By Nancy San Martin. nsanmartin@herald.com. Posted on Thu,
Sep. 26, 2002 in The Miami
Herald.
HAVANA - Nearly 300 exhibitors will tempt Cubans with slabs of ham, bacon
and sizzling barbecue meat from middle America when the largest U.S.-Cuba trade
fair in more than 40 years opens today. Chilled mojito-style martinis from New
York will offer the promise of a quenched thirst.
And Florida's Port of Pensacola will use the opportunity to try to convince
the Cuban government that theirs is the quickest route for getting the products
from the United States to Havana.
''We're trying to restore some of the position the Port of Pensacola had
prior to 1959, when it was the largest port for exports to Cuba,'' said Amy
Miller, business and trade development manager for the Port of Pensacola.
''We want to talk to them about the changing business climate, especially
for Pensacola and Northwest Florida,'' Miller said. "Economic development
and infusion of money into the community is very important. Our community is
supportive of us doing business with Cuba. It creates jobs and it creates
economic benefits.''
FIRST OF A KIND
Miller is among about 750 American executives participating in the first
trade show designed specifically for U.S. companies since Fidel Castro rose to
power in 1959. The show has drawn significantly more interest than organizers
anticipated.
The U.S. Food & Agribusiness Exhibition, as it is called, opens today at
the Pabexpo convention center outside Havana and ends Monday. It offers American
corporations an unprecedented opportunity to make a sales pitch to a country
that has been barred from doing business with the United States for four
decades.
''I would have been happy with 75 [exhibitors], I was hoping for 100 to 120
and here we are with 288,'' said Peter Nathan, president of Connecticut-based
PWN Exhibicon International L.L.C., organizers of the event. "What it tells
me is that the American companies are very eager to do business with Cuba.''
But James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, disputed the
importance of the market, calling Cuba "an international deadbeat and last
in terms of GDP.''
''I expect to see a lot more bull than beef,'' Cason said.
Among the products to be displayed are cereals, cookies, sports drinks and
even dog food. One poster depicts a soup can resembling Campbell's. Its altered
name: "Cuba's Condensed Revolution Soup.''
Chatham Imports, based in New York, is promoting its ''Marti Autentico
Ron,'' which is distributed in Florida. Exhibitors will be combining the
lemon-flavored rum with 10 different mixers, including Coca-Cola and Dole
pineapple juice.
''It takes the mojito flavors profile to another level,'' said Stephen
Ziegler, vice president of sales.
J.P. Wright & Company of Naples will be offering cattle, touted as,
''the finest in America suitable for southern tropical climates,'' said John
Parke Wright IV, the company's chairman.
Wright said land from Cuba's dwindling sugar plantations could be replanted
with grazing grass, providing the island with a viable alternative "to
diversify agriculture away from one crop dependency.''
SUGAR DOWN
Sugar exports, once the backbone of the economy, have collapsed over the
past few years, forcing the government to shut down numerous mills.
''This would increase the availability for milk for kids and seniors and put
meat on the table,'' Wright said. "Ranchers of Florida and ranchers of Cuba
can work together like no other ranchers in the world.''
Florida has the largest number of exhibitors at the trade show.
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which has the third-largest number
of exhibitors, will be showing its burly tobacco, used in American blend
cigarettes such as Marlboro. Two bourbon barrels made of Kentucky White Oak are
also on display in the hopes they can be used to age Cuban rum.
''The Cubans are very interested in that,'' said John Cotton, the
department's director for wood products. "The barrels they have here, from
what we understand, are as many as 30 years old or older.''
The state's Commissioner of Agriculture, Billy Ray Smith, plans to impress
Castro with a custom-engraved Louisville Slugger baseball bat. Castro is
expected to attend the event today.
A second regulation professional bat will be given to Pedro Alvarez Borrego,
chairman of Alimport, the Cuban government agency responsible for most of the
foreign purchases.
SETTING UP
Exhibitors spent Wednesday drenched in sweat as they set up exhibit booths
and scurried about to stock them with supplies. The opportunity to sell to Cuba
offers exhibitors a strong incentive. Riceland Foods in Arkansas, for example,
already has sold 25,000 tons of rice since Cuba began purchasing U.S. products
following Hurricane Michelle last year. But with Cuba importing about half a
million tons of rice a year, primarily from Vietnam and China, the market
potential is staggering
''It would rank, theoretically, as the second-largest market for the U.S.
Japan is the first right now,'' said Terry Harris, vice president of
international marketing for the company. "We think it's worth the time,
effort and money spent.''
Said Miller of Pensacola: "We'd love to walk away with an agreement
saying that cargo destined to Cuba is going through the Port of Pensacola. Is
that realistic? I'm not sure. But our purpose here is to begin a dialogue --
Cuba now is part of that world of international trade.'' | 
