Cuba News and Information

Associated Press

A group from North Dakota is scheduled to promote the state’s products in a trip to Cuba later this month.

State Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson will lead the delegation from nine North Dakota companies—including the state Mill and Elevator—on the three-day trip beginning December 14th.

The delegation will join representatives from other states, including Minnesota.

Johnson says the Cuban government intends to buy about 80 million dollars’ worth of food products in the first quarter of the coming year—and has signaled a strong interest in North Dakota crops.

A law Congress passed in 2000 allows the sale of U-S farm goods to Cuba. Johnson says Cuba has purchased nearly seven-and-a-half million dollars in North Dakota commodities in the past year-and-a-half.

North Dakota companies that handle dry peas have sent more than 14-thousand metric tons of peas to Cuba since a state delegation traveled to a food show there in 2002.

The North Dakota Agricultural Products Utilization Commission has approved a grant of up to 12-hundred dollars for each company making the trip.