Governor to bolster trade in Cuba trip Maine aims to sign $10 million in deals

AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci will join a trade mission to Cuba this weekend with hopes that agreements for the sale of $10 million worth of Maine-produced goods such as seed potatoes, lumber and fish products can be finalized.

Baldacci will be making his first trip to the island nation, but his administration has been represented on past missions there that helped to pave the way for the upcoming venture.

Representatives of several Maine industries will be represented on the Cuban trip, which will begin Sunday and end the following Saturday. Baldacci will participate on Sunday and Monday and will be back in Maine the following day, staff aide Richard Davies said.

Davies said the governor’s participation is in part symbolic to show that the state takes seriously its opportunity to do business with the Cubans. He noted that the Legislature was among the nation’s first to pass a resolution, in 2002, to lift a trade embargo and normalize relations with Cuba.

The U.S. embargo severely limits travel and trade with Cuba, but food and agricultural products can be sold to the country on a cash-only basis under an exception created in 2000.

A year ago, a preliminary $10 million export agreement was signed by Robert Spear, then Maine’s agriculture commissioner, and Pedro Alvarez Borrego, head of the Cuban import agency Alimport.

Some contracts under that agreement have already been consummated, including one that led to the export of Maine cows to Cuba last summer.

Other producers, including those of seed potatoes and apples, are looking to complete deals during the upcoming trade mission, said Doyle Marchant, president of Cedar Spring Agricultural Co. LLC and mission coordinator. Other potential contracts could benefit growers of tablestock potatoes, frozen fish, sardines, lumber, alpaca wool, pasta and dairy cattle, said Marchant.

“The Cubans are clearly looking to turn trade of agricultural products [into] an opportunity to open relations with the United States,” said Marchant.

Other state officials planning to participate include House Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick, and Rep. Edward Dugay, D-Cherryfield, a member of the Marine Resources Committee.

Representatives of the lumber, potato, biotech, seafood, wholesale grocery and cattle industries will also participate. The mission is financed chiefly by private funds, Davies said.