VA: TRADE MISSION TO CUBA BUILDS ON PAST SUCCESS, LOOKS TO INCREASED EXPORT ACTIVITY

News Date October 20, 2009

This November Todd P. Haymore, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS), will lead a delegation of agribusiness leaders and exporters to Havana, Cuba, as Virginia pushes to expand international sales for a diverse offering of agricultural products.  The Virginia delegation will participate in the upcoming Havana International Trade Fair November 2-7, 2009. 

Foreign markets are very important to Virginia agriculture, the State’s number one industry, and Virginia exports are one of the bright spots of the agricultural economy right now.  In 2008, Virginia exported $2.2 billion in agricultural products to a diverse array of countries, including Switzerland, China, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Malaysia, Portugal, The Netherlands, Venezuela and Indonesia.  Counted among that group was the island nation of Cuba.  Virginia’s exports to Cuba have grown dramatically since the 2002 U.S.-Cuba Food and Agricultural Exposition, the first expo to include U.S. producers since the trade embargo of 1962.

The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 allowed medical and agricultural exports to Cuba.  In 2002, VDACS hosted several Virginia companies at the agricultural exposition in Havana.  More than 228 companies from 32 states attended this first-ever event, including some of the giants of U.S. agriculture.  The first contract signed was for Virginia apples.  Exports since that first year have grown steadily.  In 2003, Virginia producers exported $838,000 worth of ag products to Cuba, and in 2008, that number grew to more than $40 million.

Since that beginning, VDACS staff have taken the opportunity to engage Cuban colleagues both in Havana and in Washington, D.C. and they have promoted Virginia’s high quality agricultural products with great success.  Prospects for the 2009 international trade fair are very promising.  Commissioner Haymore and several industry leaders will promote Virginia products, discuss remaining trade barriers, negotiate export shipments for the upcoming year and hopefully walk away with new business for the Commonwealth. 

Despite the positive outlook and recent trading successes, several challenges remain.  “Cuba will remain an important foreign market for Virginia’s agricultural exports but the full potential of this market will not be realized until the current trading relationship is improved by addressing all the trade and travel restrictions that hinder Virginia’s agricultural exports,” Haymore explained.  “Virginia’s geographic proximity to Cuba, combined with our agricultural quality and diversity and our outstanding port facilities will provide Virginia with a competitive advantage as trade barriers are lowered.” 

To put the importance of new markets in perspective, Haymore said that twenty years ago many people might not have believed that countries such as China would become important markets for Virginia’s farm exports.  “Today we ship more than $100 million per year in agricultural products from Virginia to China,” he said.  “Virginia needs to continue to be a leader in developing new trading partners, and our staff will continue to work diligently to open new markets and expand existing ones.  Cuba is a very important partner in this endeavor, and I look forward to meeting with our colleagues there in November.”   (Contact: Elaine J. Lidholm, (804)786-7686)