US Farmers Worried Tensions with Cuba Will Affect Exports [View All]

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Ralph Kaehler, realizing that Senator Coleman is playing party politics at the expense of Minnesota producers, wonders why members of Congress aren't applying equal pressure on countries like China or Saudi Arabia for their human rights records.

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Since the United States cracked open the trade embargo on Cuba two years ago to allow farmers to sell agricultural and food products there, American exports to the island nation have been on the rise. Cuba is now the United States' 35th largest agricultural export market, up from 208th just two years ago. However some farmers are concerned that heightened U.S.-Cuba political tensions will affect their exports.

Minnesota farmer Ralph Kaehler says doing business with Cuba is a lesson in working with paranoid, controlling bureaucrats who require loads of unnecessary paperwork at frequent stages of the deal. And he's not talking about the communist government in Havana. "The difficult part has been, for the most part, working with our government: getting visas for Cuban livestock inspectors and veterinarians to come up and inspect the animals like every other country does. That took forever. It's just fighting the politics side of doing business," he says.

Four thirsty black heifers eagerly line up at a trough as Mr. Kaehler turns on the water. "Their offspring will be the ones that go to Cuba in the next couple of years," he says.

Ralph Kaehler and his young sons Seth and Cliff became celebrities for a day last year during Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura's trade mission to Cuba. That's when Cuban President Fidel Castro posed for pictures with them and their bull, and the photos made the front page of newspapers around the world. Since then, Mr. Kaehler has returned to Cuba twice to sell cattle and a high-protein animal feed. Mr. Castro has hosted him both times. Their relationship is amicable enough that the Kaehler family is now on the Cuban leader's holiday greeting list. A New Year's card signed 'Fidel Castro' is proudly displayed in the farmer's kitchen.


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