December 21, 2014

Iowa poultry, crop farmers to benefit from restored US-Cuba relations

Poultry, corn and soy farmers in Iowa, the US' largest corn producer and second-largest soy producer, expect to benefit from President Barrack Obama's steps to normalize trade relations with communist Cuba, saying there are "tremendous opportunities" for them to "prosper from this development".

The new policy, announced on December 17, would expand trade and establish diplomatic relations, among others, with the neigbouring nation. Although trade sanctions against Cuba have exempted food and agricultural exports since 2001, transaction rules resulted in extra expense and time.

The Des Moines Register in a news report quoted the chairman of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, Bob Bowman, as saying his group was surprised by the developments and that they were "optimistic" that crop, livestock and farm-equipment makers would benefit from them. Bowman recounted that during a trade mission in 2007, Cubans were "begging for us to open up trade while we were there."

"If this announcement means that we're going to open up and lose some of those trade barriers, there is tremendous opportunities for Iowa corn farmers and Iowa to prosper from this development," Bowman said, according the The Des Moines Register.

Noting that the US had a record crop, Bowman said "another market for our product is great, especially a market that is 90-some miles away".

The The Des Moines Register said David Miller, director of research at the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation who is also a corn and soybean producer, likened the potential arising from a thawed trade relationship with Cuba to the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 that eased trade relations between Mexico, Canada and the US.

Miller also likened the Cuba market to Mexico 15 to 20 years ago. As of last year Mexico was the second-largest market for Iowa exports, with shipments totalling $2.2 billion.