US businessmen underline interest in negotiating with Cuba

At a press conference at the Chamber of Commerce headquarters, and in the presence of Antonio Luis Carricarte, its president; Baum, first vice president of The Food Industry Association, and Fernández, representative of Food for Cuba, highlighted the purpose of exploring and knowing the needs of the population and the potential and opportunities of the Caribbean country in terms of foreign trade.

Before local and foreign media, both expressed their desire, as requested by many members of the institution, to exchange with organizations, officials and representatives of the local business community -including micro, small and medium-sized private companies (Mipymes)-, and visit places of interest, in order to feel reality and explain to fellow countrymen.

They stated that the result of the visit will be the shipment of food for the Cuban people, both commercially and in donations, including the possibility of establishing food-producing factories here, and achieving a rapprochement between the ranchers of both nations, with the importation of better breeding stock, feed and other inputs in order to increase the levels of milk and meat in the Caribbean country.

Exchanges in terms of scientific research, medicines, education and various branches, without waiting for the blockade to be lifted, are also among the objectives of the North American businessmen in favor of establishing bridges of cooperation and respect, and who now need to know first-hand the needs and vicissitudes of the population, explained Baum and Fernández.

As part of the planned steps, they aspire to develop a first Cuba-USA business forum in Washington in January or February 2024, and visits by businessmen from the northern nation to the largest of the Antilles and vice versa.

Fernández, who has been in Havana on innumerable occasions, including in previous governments of his country, expressed that as Pope John Paul II requested in January 1998 during his trip here, Cuba has opened up to the world, but not the whole world. It has opened up to Cuba, alluding to the fact that the Joe Biden administration has not acted accordingly, although they have not lost hope that it will.

On behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, at whose headquarters they held a meeting today with officials from the institution and MSMEs, Carricarte expressed the gratitude of the Cuban government and people, and recalled that products such as honey, coffee, coal, rum and vaccines could be exported to the United States for the benefit of its consumers.

Both Marx Baum and Jorge Ignacio Fernández explained to local and foreign media that The Food Industry Association (FMI) has reached and impacted in more than 100 million households in that country and represents an 800 billion dollar industry.

It is, in essence, an organization whose main mission is to promote a safer, healthier and more efficient food supply chain for the consumer.

Its associates are retail entities, food producers and a wide variety of companies that provide services to amplify the collective work of this sector.