USA Rice Federation Members and Government Officials Greet Rice Vessel in Cuban Port

HAVANA, May 30, 2007 — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: David Coia, (703) 236-1444

USA Rice Federation Members and Government Officials Greet Rice Vessel in Cuban Port

A group of USA Rice Federation members in Havana this week for the 2007 U.S.-Cuba Trade Round, Cuban trade officials and an Arkansas congressman today greeted a shipment of U.S. milled rice arriving in Cuba, reports Marvin Lehrer, USA Rice Federation senior advisor for Cuba.

“This is only the beginning of increased trade with Cuba,” said Rep. Marion Berry (D-AR). “We are committed to increase rice sales to Cuba,” Berry said. He and Rodney Alexander (R-LA) were among a group of five lawmakers attending the trade round.

The U.S. rice industry in 2006 exported more than 157,000 metric tons (MT) of rice to Cuba, the largest foreign market for U.S. rice prior to the trade embargo imposed in the early 1960s. Agricultural trade to Cuba resumed in 2002 after passage the previous year of the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSREEA) of 2000. After TSREEA went into effect, the rice trade peaked in 2004 at nearly 177,000 MT.

“Treasury Department restrictions through the Office of Foreign Assets Control, have limited trade to what could easily be the second largest market for U.S. rice,” USA Rice President and CEO Betsy Ward said today. “The embargo has cost the United States more than $3 billion in lost contracts and nearly 5,000 additional jobs over its lifetime,” Ward said.

Ernesto Plasencia Escalante, first secretary with the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, recently told USA Rice that Cuba would import 850,000 MT of rice this year. Senior Cuban trade officials have estimated that, without the OFAC restrictions requiring cash payments prior to shipment and prohibiting the extension of credit terms, Cuba would likely import between 400,000 and 600,000 MT of rice from the United States.

Cuba in mid-April imported 33,800 MT of U.S. long-grain, milled rice, according to news reports.

Several pieces of proposed legislation in Congress seek to redress many of the OFAC restrictions, including bills to allow travel to Cuba and to facilitate the sale of agricultural products to Cuba as authorized through TSREEA.

Lehrer, one of five principal speakers representing U.S. agriculture at the conference — at which there are more than 200 American business participants from over 100 companies — stressed the need to normalize trade and travel with Cuba as a means to increase rice sales to the island.

Berry is among the cosponsors for bills to authorize travel and trade with Cuba as well as a bill to lift trade sanctions.

USA Rice members on hand to greet the rice-laden vessel were Jay Kapila, The Rice Company and USA Rice Latin American Trade Policy Subcommittee chairman; Terry Harris, Riceland Foods Inc. and USA Rice Western Hemisphere Promotion Subcommittee member; and Bobby Hanks, Louisiana Rice Mill and USA Rice Western Hemisphere Promotion Subcommittee chairman.

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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.