Florida Jumps on the Business Bandwagon to Cuba
By Anthony Boadle

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba signed a shipping agreement on Wednesday with Port Manatee, the fifth Florida port to cash in on the resumption of U.S. trade in food and agricultural exports to the nearby communist-run island.

While Miami is home to the largest Cuban exile community, including staunch anti-Castro groups that for decades have fought closer ties with Cuba, the enormous business potential of trading with Cuba is sweeping politics aside. The first shipment of 250 beef cattle to Cuba from Florida will sail early next year from Port Manatee, said the port's chairman Joe McClash. "Our long-term goals have always been to trade with Cuba for those commodities that we are legally allowed to," McClash said at a news conference.

The Cuban food import agency Alimport has spent more than $500 million in two years on American food -- mainly grains and cereals -- which are allowed under an exception to the 42-year-old U.S. trade embargo against President Fidel Castro's government. Port Manatee is located in Tampa Bay and is the closest U.S. port to Cuba on the Gulf. It didn't exist when Castro and his guerrillas seized power in a 1959 revolution.

Despite the large Cuban-American presence in Florida, and their animosity to Castro, Florida ports, ranchers and food and beverage companies have raced to get a share of the rapidly growing business with Cuba. More Florida businessmen were at Havana's annual trade fair two weeks ago than from any other U.S. state. Of the 17 U.S. ports handling shipments to Cuba, five are in Florida, Alimport president Pedro Alvarez said. Crowley Liner Services, based in Jacksonville, Florida, was the first American shipping company to call directly on Cuba in four decades in December 2001.
Crowley ships call at Cuban ports every ten days from Jacksonville and every other week from Gulfport, Mississippi.

A few days ago, Tampa opened its first regular monthly shipping service to Cuba. Cargo headed for Cuba has also been loaded at Pensacola and Everglades. "The suppliers and ports of Florida are very aggressively seeking to restore ties with Cuba at this point," Alvarez said. "Everyday we get more and more calls from them." Alvarez said Cuban-American businessmen are joining the rush for Cuba business and Havana has its doors open to them. "The powerful groups that do not agree with trade and travel to Cuba are getting smaller and smaller," he said.

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