Alabama Continues Trade With Cuba As US Lifts More Sanctions

It’s been about 50 years since the US stopped trading with Cuba.

But Alabama got back into business with the nation about 15 years ago.

“Around 2000 there was a really bad hurricane that devastated Cuba and Congress did relax the embargo on food supplies and forest products, so since then we have been able to export from Mobile,” said State Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan.

He says it’s just a 36 hour trip for cargo ships from Mobile to Cuba.

We export a lot of lumber, but the biggest impact is poultry.

The state ships 7,000 tons of frozen leg quarters a month, which comes out to about 60 billion dollars each year.

“Alabama has got great opportunities with Cuba. Let me also emphasize that the Cubans are not cash rich. So this is more of a long term agenda in my opinion,” said McMillan.

He hopes that changes happen in the next decade to really open up trade routes with the nation.

Only Congress can lift the stricter parts of the embargo.

At the moment, the poultry crates are coming back to Alabama empty.

But McMillan says there are things we could get from the island in return.

“They have beautiful and really pretty fruits and vegetables down there, extremely tasty for that matter. We believe maybe the next step to doing business with Cuba is to import some of their fresh fruits and vegetables to Alabama,” said McMillan.