Minnesota Soybean Growers hope to provide soybeans to Cuba

Minnesota’s soybean leadership recently participated in talks at the White House regarding trade opportunities with Cuba.

The talks occurred just ahead of a signing ceremony re-establishing the Cuban marketplace for U.S. food and ag products.

“We’ve had very little action in the past, and now our administration has opened up a little bit more,” said Paul Simonsen of the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council.

About 150 agriculture, energy, telecommunication and hospitality groups met on May 25 with a special assistant to President Obama. About a dozen Minnesota organizations/businesses participated in the White House meeting, including the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association.

Cuba is a close neighbor to the United States, with Havana just 228 miles from Miami.

In comparison to Minnesota, Cuba has a larger population – about 11.27 million people compared with Minnesota’s 5.457 million.

Cuba is smaller – 42,426 square miles, while Minnesota is 86,943 square miles.

“Soybean is Cuba’s number two import,” said Simonsen. “It is fairly important.”

He learned that Cuba purchases soybeans for a similar price from either South America or the United States, maybe even a little cheaper from South America.

While traveling to Cuba last January, Simonson also found out that Cuba gets their U.S. soybeans from the Gulf of Mexico.

“If they get them from the Gulf, they could be Minnesota soybeans, as well any other state’s,” he said.

Minnesota is the number one producer of food grade soybeans, and that market could be very beneficial to Cuba’s citizens. “We think some of our food grade soybeans could be a potential market there,” he added.

With the recently signed U.S./Cuban marketplace agreement, the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba and Cuba’s Grupo Empresarial Agricola will meet regularly.