• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 08 / 26 / 2010

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BISMARCK – Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring will lead a five-member trade group to Cuba in September.

“We will emphasize dry edible peas and dry beans, staples of the Cuban diet,as well as dried distillers grains for livestock feed,” said Goehring, who recently returned from meeting Cuban officials in Washington to discuss the delegation’s agenda and goals for the trade mission. “We also hope to finalize the documents needed for the export of North Dakota potatoes to Cuba.”

Past exports to Cuba have included dry beans, pasta, dry peas, semolina and wheat.

Goehring said the delegation will mostly deal directly with Alimport, the Cuban government agency responsible for making all food purchases for the country.

“We will confer with many other officials, including the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, the Cuban Veterinary Institute and the Ministry of Plant Health,” he said. “We will also meet with the U.S. Interests Section in Havana,America’s de facto embassy in Cuba.”

In addition to Goehring, the trade group will include Randy Schneider, North Dakota Ethanol Producers Association; Ken Bertsch, director of the North Dakota State Seed Department; Dave Nelson, state entomologist with the North Dakota Department of Agriculture (NDDA), and Stephanie Sinner, NDDA marketing specialist.

The group leaves Sept. 22 and returns Sept. 25.

This is the eighth trade mission organized by NDDA.

MEDIA: For information, please contact Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or
tquanrud@....

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Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/117315