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Associated Press. Posted on Mon, Jun. 09, 2003 in in
KansasCity.com.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A lumber company will begin shipments to Cuba this
month, becoming the first American company to sell wood to the communist nation
since 1958, company officials said Monday.
Lanahan Lumber Co. has orders for 350 containers of southern yellow pine,
the company said. The first shipments of 25 containers will be taken from
Jacksonville and Gulfport, Miss., to Havana within the next two weeks and will
continue twice a month for the next six months.
"We are very excited to announce this partnership with Cuba and to be
the first in almost 43 years to create such a partnership," said company
president Michael Lanahan, who visited the Cuba six times last year to secure
the orders.
The Jacksonville-based company has the potential to ship nearly 800
containers of lumber to Cuba over the next year.
The lumber will be used in Cuba to rebuild farm houses that were destroyed
by hurricanes and to build pallets to move wheat and other grain shipped from
U.S. farms, the company said.
The lumber sales are permitted by the U.S. Trade Act and authorized by the
Department of Treasury.
A 2000 U.S. law allows American food sales as an exception to the
four-decade-old embargo against Cuba. The first contract was signed on Dec. 16,
2001, and since then Cuba has contracted to buy more than $200 million in
American food. | 
