Cuba accord to benefit two more Maine companies

AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci’s administration said Thursday that two more Maine companies will do business with Cuba under terms of a $10 million export agreement that was signed at the end of last year.

The December agreement covered exports of Maine apples, potatoes, eggs and maple syrup, said Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Ned Porter.

The Maine companies added to the agreement are sardine packer Connors Bumblebee and Robbins Lumber in Searsmont.

Brian Thomas, Connors Bumblebee’s sales manager for Latin America, said the new contract will help the company supply work for its newly automated sardine plant in Prospect Harbor, “keeping much-needed sardine canning jobs in Maine.”

Bumblebee has contracted for multiple shipping containers of sardines, and Robbins has contracted for an initial order of 30 shipping containers of pine, spruce, fir and hardwood.

The federal government has lifted an embargo for certain agricultural products to Cuba.

The agreement had been reached between state Agriculture Commissioner Robert Spear and Pedro Alvarez Borrego, head of the Cuban import agency Alimport.