Iowans Go to Cuba to Sell Corn and Distillers Grains

Iowans Go to Cuba to Sell Corn and Distillers Grains
Rod Swoboda rswoboda@farmprogress.com
October 17, 2007

Cuba can become a more important market for Iowa's agricultural
commodities, say representatives of the Iowa Corn Growers Association
and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board who traveled to Cuba with Iowa
Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey. They were in Cuba from October 1
to October 5.

"For the last decade, Iowa Corn and the Iowa Department of Agriculture
have led a sustained effort to increase food and feed sales to Cuba,"
says Craig Floss, chief executive officer for ICGA and ICPB. "In the
last marketing year, 95% of Cuba's corn imports came from the U.S. That
is real progress, given the legal restrictions on U.S.-Cuba trade."

Cuba's corn purchases this year could be nearly 40 million bushels, but
Floss is even more enthusiastic about Cuba's development as a market for
distillers dried grains, or DDGs from Iowa's ethanol industry.
"Distillers dried grains was unknown in Cuba before 2004. Our work to
introduce its use is paying off. Last year, the Cubans bought about
100,000 metric tons, and this year that is expected to double."

Potential for higher value ag products, too

Delegation members said Cuba could also become a growing market for
higher value agricultural exports like milk and meat if trade
restrictions were eased.

The Iowa Corn Growers efforts to open and improve trade with Cuba began
with a humanitarian food donation in 1998, followed by exchanges that
brought key Cuban food officials to Iowa and took Iowa farmers and feed
experts to Cuba. The most recent mission focused specifically on
educating Cuban livestock feeders in the use of corn and DDG in dairy,
swine and poultry production.

"The farmers in Cuba and the government officials in Cuba that we met
with were interested in growing the Cuban dairy industry. They see
distillers grains as a product that could help them do that," Northey
says. "Distillers grains make a lot of sense for Cuba and could become a
good market for Iowa ethanol plants."
IDALS and Iowa Corn look forward to building relationships made through
this latest trade mission trip to Cuba, he says.

Cuban livestock producers need feed

U.S. trade restrictions on Cuba, which have been in place since Fidel
Castro overthrew a pro-U.S. government and installed a Communist regime
there 50 years ago, require Cubans to pay cash for all their purchases
of U.S. food and ag products.

"Right now the U.S. will only allow agriculture commodities, medicine
and health products to be sold to Cuba," says Bob Bowman, past president
of the Iowa Corn Growers, who farms at DeWitt, Iowa. "The U.S.
government won't allow any imports of Cuban products. Americans can't go
to Cuba for travel or tourism. They can only go for trade missions or
educational exchanges. These restrictions hurt Cuba's ability to earn
dollars that could be spent on buying agricultural products such as U.S.
corn and distillers grains."

Cuban livestock producers want to buy U.S. corn, distillers grain and
protein feed, says Bowman. They can't grow much grain in Cuba. "The
Cubans are trying to increase their dairy herd and milk production. But
they need grain and protein to do that and they need dollars to be able
to pay for the imported grain, DDGs and protein for feed," says Bowman.

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