Ag commissioner predicts normalized relations with Cuba within the decade

Cuba could be a great trading partner with Louisiana if the island nation stabilizes its economy and officials on both sides agree to normalize relations, says Commissioner Mike Strain of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. Before the U.S. trade embargo started in 1960, much of Cuba’s imports and exports flowed through the Port of New Orleans, Strain says. Even today, many of the products that are allowed through the embargo ship from New Orleans. “Those people there are hungry,” he says. “They need our products. … I think we’ll see normalized relations within five to eight years.” Among other changes, travel restrictions would need to be lifted so inspectors are able to travel back and forth. Farmers and agriculture officials, including federal officials, talk about Cuba among themselves often, Strain says. Louisiana rice growers, major suppliers to the Cuban market before the embargo, would see the greatest benefit, says Louisiana Farm Bureau spokesman Michael Danna. He says opening the Cuban market would not be “a panacea for all that ails us,” since the population is just over 11 million—roughly the same as Ohio, but it would help. —David Jacobs