USA Rice Cuba Conference Results in Rice Sales of 130,000 MT

HAVANA, Cuba, August 26, 2005 — Pedro Alvarez Borrego, chairman and CEO of ALIMPORT, the Cuban food import agency, today announced impending contracts for the purchase of 130,000 metric tons of U.S. rice.

The contracts, to be finalized in the next few days, will be for 100,000 metric tons (MT) of paddy rice to be delivered in September with an additional 30,000 MT to be delivered in succeeding months. Alvarez, who made the announcement during a news conference here at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, noted that with the new contracts, Cuba’s U.S. rice purchases for the year will exceed last year’s total.

Alvarez emphasized that Treasury Department payment restrictions on Cuba by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) continues to have a detrimental effect on the U.S.-Cuba trade.

“The OFAC regulations have penalized American growers and exporters,” he said. In comments yesterday he explained that the U.S. rice industry was well-positioned to supply up to 500,000 MT of Cuba’s total 750-800 metric ton rice import market without the disruption of current contracts.

Today’s announcement is a gesture by Cuba to recognize the public statements of the USA Rice Federation for the normalization of trade and travel regulations with Cuba, Alvarez said.

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USA Rice Federation is the national advocate for all segments of the rice industry, conducting activities to influence government programs, developing and initiating programs to increase worldwide demand for U.S. rice, and providing other services to increase profitability for all industry segments.