By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Editor
Improved ports and lighter restrictions on travel and trade may be a golden opportunity for Texas farmers and ranchers.
Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) leaders and staff recently attended a “Doing Business with Cuba” conference to discuss these opportunities and what it could mean for those involved in agriculture.
“The door is open. They want to be friends with us. They want to do business. I think they know that getting freight from Texas to Cuba is a whole lot less expensive than getting it from Brazil, South Africa or something like that. I think for them, the opportunity looks pretty good,” TFB State Director Scott Frazier said.
A few years ago, the embargo only allowed humanitarian aid to the island nation. But trade and travel restrictions were loosened by former President Barack Obama.
“It looks like maybe some other products may have an opportunity to get in there that before weren’t really on the list,” Frazier, a Nueces County farmer, said.
Nearly all of Cuba’s major imports are also strong exports from Texas. Farmers and ranchers hope to be able to market their rice, soybeans, beans, corn, poultry, beef and pork to Cuba.
But there are barriers in place.
The embargo restricts trade between Cuba and the U.S. and that hurts those in Texas with goods the Cubans might want.
“Current policy will not let Cuba buy American goods on credit,” Frazier said. “Instead, it forces Cuban importers to pay with cash, which reduces their ability to buy from the U.S. compared to other countries.”
Frazier hopes a new state-of-the-art port facility in Cuba will help.
“I think that may have some real opportunities for us in Texas because by being able to ship in containers, you don’t necessarily have to have shipload-size lots to send. You can send much smaller container loads,” Frazier said. “I think that may create some opportunities for us.”
Another hurdle for Texas businesses, according to Frazier, is the two markets in Cuba.
“There’s the market to the Cuban people, and then there’s the market to the tourist trade. Depending on what your product or commodity is, you may be able to sell to the tourist market, which is for higher quality and priced products, compared to selling to the Cuban people, which is for lower quality and priced products,” Frazier said.
Groups like TFB hope tourism continues to increase, causing a greater demand for higher quality and priced products like those exported from Texas.
Although it’s not clear on what, if any, changes President Donald Trump will make regarding U.S.-Cuban trade. Whether or not action is taken, Congress retains the power to lift the full embargo.
“I think over the next few years, we’ll see that market open up more and more to us. We’re so close and we have some port facilities here on the Gulf of Mexico that we can certainly work with Cuba to get some products to them fairly inexpensively,” Frazier said. “I think as things free up in the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba, I think there will be some opportunities to extend some credit or something like that to help make their buying power a little bit better and make it better for us.”
The Texas-Cuba Trade Alliance (TCTA), of which TFB is a member, was created to promote trade with Cuba and act as an educational resource to help those interested in trade with Cuba.
The alliance hopes to build statewide support for Congressional action to end the travel ban and trade embargo with Cuba.
TCTA is primarily made of agricultural organizations, universities such as Texas A&M, exporters and other industries that hope to trade with Cuba.
“I think it’s important for Farm Bureau to be at the table. We represent a wide variety of commodities and products in the agriculture realm,” Frazier said. “Hopefully Farm Bureau can be a source for our producers to use to gain some insight that they may need to start doing business with Cuba.”
The conference was held Monday, Jan. 23, by The Texas-Cuba Trade Alliance, the World Affairs Council of Austin and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
In addition to Frazier, TFB State Directors Bob Reed and Zack Yanta also attended, along with TFB staff Regan Beck and Glen Jones.