THE Reverend Jesse Jackson is to visit Cuba in the next three months in support of unrestricted trade relations between Cuba and the United States, it emerged during the signing of an agreement between the Calhoun Foods company and the Cuban Alimport enterprise for an initial sum of $14.3 million worth of pork and chicken.

Perdo Alvarez, director of Alimport, stated that the reverend confirmed his visit to Cuba in a phone conversation yesterday.

Some 30 food companies from 15 states displayed their goods in the Meliá Cohiba Hotel. For Pedro Alvarez, negotiations are to continue this week and the total of purchases could rise to $20 million with other products.

Alvarez said that the foodstuffs are currently being paid for by means of credit cards via third countries, in the wake of the latest measures imposed by the US Treasury Department insisting on payment in full before receiving the food imports. "This is both increasing the cost of food products and damaging American medium and small businesses," Alvarez informed Granma International.

Contracts established with US enterprises have amounted to more than $1.32 billion since 2001, according to the Alimport director. Of that total, $1.15 billion has already been paid.

Gregory Calhoun, director of Calhoun Foods, told Granma International that the obstacles imposed on trade between Cuba and the United States are negatively affecting Alabama farmers.

He commented that he has noticed that US citizens have an erroneous impression of Cuba until they come here and see the real situation.

"I traveled to Cuba last December with a group of politicians and all of them, Democrats and Republicans, were agreed that we should do business with Cuba," he recalled.

The Alabama agricultural commissioner recently recently spoke out for open trade with the island, which is a very correct message, "not just for the people of that state but for our country as a whole," the Calhoun Foods director stressed.

He thought that the upcoming visit by Jesse Jackson would benefit trade relations between Cuba and the United States.

Malcolm Calhoun, Gregory’s son, was pleased that Cuba had opened its doors to Alabama businesspeople and congratulated everyone involved in organizing this trade show. 

Reprint from http://granmai.cubaweb.com

BY RAISA PAGES—Granma International staff writer—