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By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Yahoo! Mon Sep 30,
2:11 PM ET.
HAVANA (AP) - New American food sales to communist Cuba reached nearly $75
million at an agribusiness fair aimed at whetting the island's appetite for U.S.
farm products and chipping away at the 40-year trade embargo.
Cuban officials said Monday they had struck deals to buy $74.8 million in
American food. More deals were being announced as the five-day fair drew to a
close Monday.
Authorities initially had said they had expected $50 million in contracts
during the fair, which featured 288 exhibitions from 33 American states
displaying products including cheese, chicken, tropical drinks, even chili
sauce.
Contracts for $16 million were signed on Sunday alone, said Pedro Alvarez,
head of Cuba's food import concern Alimport.
President Fidel Castro showed up at the fair on Sunday morning to witness
the signing of two contracts: one for $5 million in soybeans and corn from F.C.
Stone of Iowa, and a second to buy 25 million eggs worth $1 million from Dolphin
Shipping & Trading of Georgia.
Other deals were under consideration, including a co-marketing agreement
between Cuba's Havana Club rum production company and Splash Tropical Drinks of
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
At the fair Sunday morning, some exhibitors began giving away food products
brought for display. Goldkist Inc. of Atlanta gave away 600 pounds of frozen
chicken in 5-pound packages to delighted Cuban visitors. The chicken was gone in
five minutes.
During the formal dinner held for exhibitors and their families on Saturday
night, Castro congratulated the Americans for attending.
The show, he said, "has been possible thanks to the determination,
constructive spirit and initiative of farmers and businesspeople in the United
States."
The exhibition, which opened Thursday, featured 288 exhibitors from 33
states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The show and participants are
fully licensed by the U.S. government to be in Cuba, which remains under a trade
embargo after more than four decades.
A U.S. law passed in 2000 permitted the first direct commercial sales of
American food and agricultural products to the communist-run island in 40 years.
Since Cuba started taking advantage of the law in November, it has purchased
more than $140 million in American food. | 
