Cuba Gets Shipment of U.S. Brand-Name Food

HAVANA —  Tons of American food destined for Cuban supermarkets arrived here Sunday in the first shipment of U.S. brand-name food sold directly to the communist country since Washington imposed an embargo more than 40 years ago.

Cuba already has purchased 600,000 tons of U.S. grains, poultry and other foods since November, taking advantage of a U.S. law passed in 2000 that relaxed the U.S. embargo to allow agriculture-related sales for cash.

Sunday’s shipment of Marsh-brand butter, margarine, breakfast cereals and tomato sauce was part of a $750,000 deal made by Marsh International, a subsidiary of Marsh Supermarkets Inc. of Indiana, to sell the first American brand-name food to Cuba since 1961.

The company said future shipments under the contract comprised 140 products, including condiments, snack foods, baby food, cookies, pasta, preserves and soup.

“Cuba is a viable market with lots of potential, and we want to be here,” Mohamed Bouras, Marsh’s director of international sales, said at the Port of Havana, where the food was unloaded.

Bouras said his company’s supermarkets carried 148,000 items, including all major U.S. brands.

“There is no reason we cannot sell those items here. We hope to sell millions to Cuba next year.”

Pedro Alvarez Borrego, head of the Cuban food-importing agency Alimport, joined Bouras at the port and valued his company’s purchases of U.S. food this year at about $120 million.

“Why should we have to buy U.S. products through third parties? It increases the cost and keeps our two peoples apart,” Alvarez said, when asked about the many U.S. items already available in the Caribbean island nation.

Well-known U.S. soft drinks such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Sprite are readily available here, as are cigarette brands such as Marlboro and Winston, and other products, brought in through Canada, Mexico and Central America.

The dollar and local peso circulate freely in Cuba. State-run stores sell most imported food for dollars, while other stores sell a smaller variety of goods of poorer quality for pesos.

Cuba’s food purchases have fueled a growing farm and business lobby in the United States to end the embargo.

The House voted recently to lift restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba and to allow U.S. financing of food sales to Havana, among other embargo-weakening measures, with the Senate expected to adopt similar legislation this year.

President Bush has vowed to veto attempts to lift the bans on trade financing and travel by Americans to Cuba until Havana makes democratic reforms.

Alvarez said if the embargo were lifted, his country might buy more than 60% of its food from the United States. He said Cuba currently imports $1 billion worth of food but that the figure would increase to $1.5 billion over the next few years.