US Is $500 Million Supermarket to Cuba

[flamingdem]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/37342637/

The U.S. businesses that sold $528 million in food products to Cuba last year range from small dairy farmers to multi- billion dollar agribusiness corporations.

But they seem to have one thing in common: they admit to mixing a little social messaging in with their sales.

Take the case of Ralph Kaehler, a St. Charles, Minn., cattleman who shipped the first livestock to Cuba after the U.S. lifted its 52-year trade embargo to allow sales of food products and medical supplies in 2000.

In 2002, news photos of Kaehler’s two sons were published around the world as they showed Fidel Castro one of their bulls, named Minnesota Red. (See one of the images below.)

“I’d rather have my boys someday go down there and negotiate a cattle contract than be members of a peacekeeping mission,” Kaehler said. “We’ve never gone to war with a trading partner.”

Escape from Havana - A CNBC Original Documentary

Kaehler is outspoken on the subject of doing business with Cuba, in sharp contrast to the rare and carefully chosen statements on the subject from agribusiness giants like Cargill or Archer Daniels Midland.

The Cuban trade embargo remains a hotly-debated topic of the sort most U.S. companies shy away from. You either believe that economic sanctions should remain in effect until the Cuban dictatorship switches to democracy or you believe that the quickest way to undermine the Cuban government would be to flood the island with U.S. goods and citizens.

Profit hasn’t been foremost on Kaehler’s list of motives.

“Like my banker says, for the amount of money we’ve gone through in trading with Cuba, we sure haven’t kept much,” he said. “We’re doing it as much for correcting policy we think is wrong as anything else. And as farmers, we have to promote agriculture whenever we can.”

Archer Daniels Midland
Seth Perlman / AP
The Archer Daniels Midland Co., logo on the main office at the ADM plant in Decatur, Ill.

Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland , with 2009 revenues of nearly $70 billion, was the first U.S. company to sign a contract with Cuba after the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 lifted part of the trade embargo.

By some estimates, ADM now accounts for nearly half of all U.S. food exports to Cuba. But the company doesn’t publicize its Cuban trade.

Asked last week about ADM’s trade with Cuba, media relations manager Roman Blahoski responded, “We generally do not discuss market conditions. We do not break down revenue by country or region, only by business unit—corn processing, etc.,—so we wouldn't have any revenue information specific to Cuba to provide.”

In October 2003, Tony DeLio, a former vice-president of marketing and public relations at ADM, was quoted by the Chicago Tribune: “We are always concerned when there is a lack of freedom. But as a company, our ability to affect that, and where we can help bring about change, is through trade.” (Correction--See Below)

Cargill Inc., one of the world’s largest privately owned corporations, also has been doing business with Cuba for 10 years. Since it’s privately held, Cargill is not required to file public reports on its financial profile, but its annual sales are estimated at well over $55 billion.

Asked this week about its trade with Cuba, media relations director David Feider responded by e-mail: “I can confirm that Cargill has sold U.S. agricultural commodities now for a number of years—corn, dried distillers' grains, wheat—licensed by the U.S. government under the Trade Sanctions Reform & Export Enhancement Act of 2000 into Cuba."

“This activity is consistent with our longstanding belief that that food is a basic right, and access to it should not be manipulated by governments for political purposes,” Feider added.

Cuban President Fidel Castro talks with Cliff Kaehler, 13, Seth Kaehler, 11, and their father Ralph Kaehler, as they show him livestock from their Minnesota farm during the U.S. Food & Agribuisiness Exhibition, Sept 26, 2002 in Havana.

Florida International University, which annually polls Cuban-American sentiment, identified a tipping point in 2008. For the first time less than half of respondents, 45 percent, supported the continuing U.S. economic embargo. Their 2004 poll showed that 66 percent wanted the embargo to continue.

“The embargo is about the Cuban exiles who backed Batista,” Kaehler said. “It’s all about old money and old power. Over 70 percent of Cuban Americans weren’t alive when the embargo was put in place. All families in Cuba have relatives in the U.S. Just like Mexican families, they all have someone up here making money and sending it home. Even with the embargo and all its impeding circumstances, we’re still one of Cuba’s top four trading partners.”

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[Judi Lynn]

1. Wow! The people at CNN's US/Cuba relations message board were watching breathlessly

for all the signs when we heard this narrow corridor of trade was opening up thanks to Congress following Hurricane Michelle, when Cuba's food supplies were destroyed. We waited for the first shipment of food, it was frozen chicken, etc. after several false starts.

We saw the photos taken from the shore of Havana as that first ship arrived, and read a story of the harbor master who welcomed them in.

Read all about Ralph Kaehler, too, going to Havana from his ranch in Minnesota. At some point, maybe within a year, Minnesota's governor Jesse Ventura went there with an agricultural trade group, and _{George W. Bush's} Cuban "exile" clown/criminal friend Otto Reich publicly insulted Ventura and his wife by loudly warning him he shouldn't be going to Cuba for "sexual adventurism." All class, Republicans.

We watched with baited breath as the Miami crowd fought the legislation like men possessed, claiming Cuba would steal all the food, would never pay for it, etc., etc., etc. They fought as if their own lives depended upon keeping Cuba from getting food for the Cuban people.

We watched and read and researched as various food lines were added to the list, like corn, and wheat, and rice. We marveled as we heard how apples from Washington went over, and the trips made to Cuba by Washington's governor. Too cool!

Here's a photo of Ralph the rancher speaking with President Castro, who spend hours and hours with these trade people, asking them mountains of questions about their areas of expertise. There are more photos, which can only be seen by clicking links, as they are owned by LIFE magazine.



Click:
?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921F7C3FC3F69D929FD3DC0340F00356CBFFDE80B35540233055D9C24EA3EB9BA59E30A760B0D811297
"Food Expo In Cuba Winds Down
HAVANA - SEPTEMBER 30: Cuban President Fidel Castro (R) speaks with members of the Ralph Kaehler family, who own Kaelher Homedale Farms in the U.S., September 30, 2002 in Havana, Cuba. The exchange came at the end of the five-day U.S. Food and Agribuisiness Exhibition. The event was sold-out with 288 U.S. companies from 33 states participating. "

?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921F7C3FC3F69D929FD2E1E07627CD8B537E176801992327BE92E01A5E26C8FB4BCE30A760B0D811297

U.S. Food & Agribuisiness Exhibition in Havana
HAVANA, CUBA - SEPTEMBER 25: Ralph Kaehler (4th L), from St. Charles, Minnesota and Craig Damstrom (3rd L) from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and others listen as Cuban farmers share their dairy farm techniques during a visit to a dairy farm September 25, 2002 outside of Havana, Cuba. They are in Cuba participating in the U.S. Food & Agribuisiness Exhibition, that will attract 750 American executives representing 288 U.S. companies, government agencies and farming cooperatives to Cuba. The exhibition, running through September 26, 2002, is expected to generate $150 million in deals over the next nine months.

?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921F7C3FC3F69D929FD3DC0340F00356CBF487638D92FA875245F4593AD03380C4BE30A760B0D811297

Food Expo In Cuba Winds Down
HAVANA - SEPTEMBER 30: Ralph Kaehler (L), president of Kaelher Homedale Farms in the U.S., signs a contract worth $55,000 (U.S.) with Pedro Alvarez (R), president of Alimport, the government agency in Cuba that buys foreign products, September 30, 2002 in Havana, Cuba. Cuban President Fidel Castro looks on from in back. The deal came during the U.S. Food and Agribuisiness Exhibition going on in Havana. The five-day event, which ends today, drew 288 U.S. companies from 33 states.

?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921F7C3FC3F69D929FD3DC0340F00356CBF93B4CF6A13BFC5CFC028AD70164ECEF0E30A760B0D811297

Food Expo In Cuba Winds Down
HAVANA - SEPTEMBER 30: Cuban President Fidel Castro (R) speaks with members of the Ralph Kaehler family, owners of Kaelher Homedale Farms in the U.S., September 30, 2002 in Havana, Cuba. The exchange came at the end of the five-day U.S. Food and Agribuisiness Exhibition, which drew 288 U.S. companies from 33 states.

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It's just great hearing Mr. Kaehler's name again, and learning he's in it for the duration, and is still working for increased interaction with Cuba.

What a bright spot in this day. Thank you so much, flamingdem!