Cuba Buys Forth: Exporting Agricultural Products from the U.S.

Businesses that export agricultural products to other countries might want to consider Cuba. Its been seven years since the U.S. has given a green light on allowing agricultural trade into the country not necessarily because Cuba wouldn't allow the export products in. It was one of those bureaucracy details that the people in Washington had to work through. It could have been that Washington felt the agricultural needs of the residents in the U.S. weren't being met, there wasn't enough to go around, but whatever was behind the reasoning agricultural exporting to Cuba was given the go ahead.

If you want to conduct trade with Cuba you will first have to get two licenses. The first is a travel license and the second is an exporting license. The U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Commerce are both regulators of the licenses. The Treasury is responsible for the travel license and the Commerce directs the exporting license.

You might ask, "Why do you have to have a travel license?" Well, before Cuba will do business with you they want to meet you face to face and sample what you are selling. If you set up to go to Cuba during a trade delegation its much easier to find a buyer. Alimport facilities, a place where most buyers go to find potential sellers, holds meetings and gives opportunities for products to be shown. Trade delegations at Alimport gives credibility to the seller. With a business license you can go to Cuba and not set up at a trade delegations, in other words trying to find a buyer for the goods on your own, but it won't be as easy to do. Being part of a trade delegation Cuban officials or Alimport is familiar with automatically gets a foot instead of a toe in the door.

One benefit of doing business with Cuba is that they have to pay up-front under the U.S. law. Another is that by doing business with the certified buyers at Alimport the currency exchange will be figured in U.S. dollars and you will be able to read the contracts. Since Alimport buyers write the contracts in English.