Havana – Cuba made a commitment to U.S. businessmen to buy 700,000 tons of corn for about $100 million this year, Pedro Alvarez, the president of the state-run Cuban import firm Alimport, announced here Tuesday.
The Cuban firm and U.S. businessmen – headed by the president of the U.S. Grains Council, Davis Anderson, and the leaders of agricultural production groups in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas and North Dakota – signed the accord at a ceremony in this capital.
Alvarez said that Cuba agreed to buy 700,000 tons of U.S. corn for human – as well as animal – consumption during 2006.
The value of the purchase will be about $100 million, provided the price of a ton of corn remains between $140 and $145 on the international market.
The head of Alimport said that since sales of U.S. agricultural goods to Cuba were approved in December 2001, Cuban authorities have bought more than two million tons of corn.
The purchases are exceptions to the U.S. trade embargo in place against the Cuban regime since 1962.
Alimport data shows that since the start of U.S. agricultural shipments to the Communist island, Havana has purchased more than 6.6 million tons of products from 37 U.S. states valued at almost $1.8 billion.
