Thawing Agricultural Trade with Cuba

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

Yesterday we talked Cuba here in your ag news and heard from Ted McKinney, CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. Coming out of a trade mission to the island nation, McKinney says that the Cuban government has made notable changes to policy in the recent years. In that, he’s hopeful it’s the first step to eventually thawing relations between the North American neighbors…

“The key to this, and most people do not know this, is that under then-President Raul Castro, it has changed. There's a new one now, but he's continuing Raul Castro's philosophy. They changed the Constitution to allow for private entities. It doesn't all have to go through the federal government and then out to people. And there have been several thousand private businesses that popped up. The same could be said for cooperatives, and they’re fairly similar to cooperatives as we know it. There are some that are very tied to the government. There are others that are not tied to the government.”

Again, that’s NASDA CEO Ted McKinney. If you missed the first part of our discussion in yesterday’s program, head to our website – AgInfo.net.