Texas trade trip to Cuba headed by agriculture commissioner

Staples poised to lead first high-level visit from Texas since embargo of 1962

Todd Staples, the state agriculture commissioner, will soon become Texas' first statewide elected official to visit Cuba since the United States imposed an embargo against the Communist nation in 1962.

Staples received word from the U.S. Treasury this week that he has approval to take a group from Miami to Havana on May 27. His 24-member contingent will include soybean, rice, wheat, bean, cotton and livestock producers as well as makers of retail-ready foods such as sausage.

(enlarge photo) Todd Staples

The participants plan to spend four days talking to buyers for the Cuban government, visiting farms and touring.

Their goal: Negotiate the sale of more Texas products to Cuba and hasten visits by potential Cuban customers to Texas.

"I view it as a market that is in our backyard," Staples said. "And in this economy, we need to make certain that our producers have every opportunity that they can to sell Texas products."

The trip will cost about $1,800 per person. The state will pay for state workers; the others will pay their own way.

For decades, the trade embargo throttled contact with Cuba. But in 2000, Congress authorized trade exceptions for U.S. food commodities and medical supplies.

More than 25 states have since dispatched official trade missions, with California, the top U.S. food-producing state, sending its first official agricultural mission in January and New York following in April.

State Comptroller Susan Combs, who was Texas agriculture commissioner from 1999 through 2006, dispatched aides to curry trade with Cuba but because of a scheduling conflict didn't go there herself, spokesman Allen Spelce said.

In 2006, Cuba imported nearly $330 million in farm products from the United States, whose producers accounted for 32 percent of the island nation's agricultural imports. Texas exported $95 million worth of farm commodities to Cuba through its ports in 2007, a figure that includes commodities from other states.

Cynthia Thomas, president of TriDimension Strategies, a Dallas firm that helps companies deal with Cuba, plans to be part of Staples' group.

Thomas said that some Texas producers have made Cuban ties, while others haven't.

"Having an official trip with the commissioner going down makes a statement both to the Texas companies and to Cuba that we're serious about doing trade," Thomas said. "The department has a lot of reach within the ag community in Texas to find the products Cuba is specifically looking for."

Parr Rosson, a Texas A&M University professor of agricultural economics, is also joining the mission.

Rosson said the state's annual farm exports to Cuba could leap to $120 million to $130 million after the trip; Texas needs to make up ground with other states that have strengthened Cuban ties.

"I feel like Texas' image has slipped a little bit," Rosson said.

Thomas said Staples' acknowledged lack of fluency in Spanish shouldn't matter.

"The Cubans speak English," she said. "They're very fluent — and the (trade) contracts are in English."

wgselby@statsman.com, 445-3644

Members of state delegation to Cuba

Name Organization

Ernest Bezdek Port of Beaumont

Louis Broussard U.S. Rice Producers Association (Beaumont Rice Mill)

John Chumbley Texas Farm Bureau (Dorchester Grain Co. — Howe)

Rosalee King Coleman Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas

Kenneth Dierschke Texas Farm Bureau

Cary Dupuy Texas Department of Agriculture

Dale Grounds Paul Reinhart Inc.

Gus Glen Jones Jr. Texas Farm Bureau

Samuel Brian McCuistion Texas Sorghum Producers (Planters Coop — Odom)

Gary McGehee Texas Farm Bureau

Raymond Meyer Texas Farm Bureau

Mary Theresa Ovalle Texas Department of Agriculture

Michael David Perez Port of Corpus Christi

Stephen Pringle Texas Farm Bureau

Karen Provost Wimberley Lavender Farm

C. Parr Rosson Texas A&M

Dan Shelton Texas Farm Bureau

Todd Staples Texas Department of Agriculture

Kelley Stripling Texas Department of Agriculture

Cynthia Thomas TriDimension Strategies LLC

Michelle Tubilla Moose Milk

Frank Walker Walker Ltd.

Patrick Wallesen WestStar Food Co. LLC

Michael Edward Wilson Port of Freeport

Source: Texas Department of Agriculture