Group heads to Cuba to talk rice trade

Group heads to Cuba to talk rice trade
Tuesday, May 27, 2008; Posted: 05:41 AM

BEAUMONT, May 27, 2008 (The Beaumont Enterprise - McClatchy-Tribune
Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- Louis Broussard Jr. is hoping a
trip to Cuba will result in a new dawn for his company.

Before an embargo restricted trade between the United States and Cuba in
the early 1960s, Broussard, president of Beaumont Rice Mills, said about
90 percent of his company's business was with Cuba, where his firm sold
rice under the Sunset brand.

"Our long-term goal for the mill is to get Sunset back in business (in
Cuba)," Broussard said.

Today, Broussard and Ernest Bezdek, director of trade development for
the Port of Beaumont, will accompany Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd
Staples and 24 Texas farmers, ranchers, commodity suppliers and port
representatives to Cuba.

"We hope to develop beneficial relationships with the key
decision-makers in Cuba, to generate referrals that will ultimately lead
to the sales of Texas agriculture products and to gain a better
understanding of the needs and goals of the Cuban market," Staples told
The Enterprise.

Staples will be Texas' first statewide elected official to visit Cuba
since the United States imposed the trade embargo.

"My job is to promote and protect Texas interests," he said. "Developing
a relationship with markets in close proximity makes economic sense. It
is my responsibility to look for these opportunities and to facilitate
new markets for our producers."

Staples stressed that the trip is about trade, not politics, but
acknowledged the embargo probably would be discussed.

Broussard said he now does no business with Cuba but hopes to put the
Sunset brand name back in Cubans' minds.

He might not have to try too hard. On a similar trip to the country in
1999, Broussard said he made T-shirts using the Sunset name, and a
number of people said they remembered the brand.

Dwight Roberts, president and chief executive of the U.S. Rice Producers
Association, said that thanks to Congress passing the Trade Sanctions
Reform and Export Enhancement Act in 2000, the United States shipped a
record 165,000 tons of rice to Cuba in 2004.

The legislation allowed the sale of agricultural and medical products to
Cuba, Roberts said.

So far in 2008, Roberts said, the United States has shipped only about
10,000 tons, partially due to the high price of the commodity.

"It looks like the government wants to make a lot of changes," Broussard
said. "Whether Southeast Texas rice goes to Cuba or not, U.S. rice is
moving, so it's opening other markets."

Southeast Texas rice farmer Mike Doguet said his business mostly is
domestic, but if the agriculture commissioner's trip to Cuba opens
another market, that could be good news for the Southeast Texas rice
industry.

"(Cuba) used to be our No. 1 customer of rice in the '40s and '50s," he
said.

Staples said Cuba is hosting a trade fair in November and hopes this
trip will give Texas sellers an opportunity to make contacts prior to
the event. The group returns Saturday.

"Deep East Texas has great products to offer to the rest of the world
and Cuba is a market right in our back yard," Staples said. "We're
looking forward to generating business contacts."

hnolan@hearstnp.com

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