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We send a lot of our ag products here in Indiana to nearby countries, such as Canada and Mexico—but what about Cuba?
“I could see in the long-term future Cuba being a really great market for us and then being a really friendly neighbor, but it’s just going to take quite a bit of change that’s out of our hands,” says Don Lamb, Director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
He recently traveled to Cuba as part of a trade mission hosted by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) and funded by the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
Lamb is a Director of NASDA and was invited to join NASDA’s trade mission to Cuba by NASDA CEO Ted McKinney, who had once served as ISDA Director before he became the USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs.
Lamb says it was an eye-opening experience to see the food crisis in Cuba first-hand.
“It’s kind of a good and bad situation. You’re excited about the potential for the future [with Cuba], but it’s also somewhat discouraging with the situation that they’re in there,” he says. “They’re in really bad financial shape. The people are hungry. There’s not going to be a real quick way to start trading a lot of dollars with them or a lot of food, but there are definitely opportunities because it’s needed. There are 11 million people there 90 miles off our coast and they’re hungry. We would really like to be able to do something about that.”
Lamb adds that the ongoing embargo and political tensions between the U.S. and Cuba that have lasted for nearly 65 years are certainly barriers to trading there. But he says he’s optimistic that things could turn around and that Indiana’s ag products could eventually find a new market in Cuba.
“I always joke around that I’m a popcorn guy, so I want them to buy [Indiana] popcorn to eat at a Cuban baseball game,” he says. “Right now, their economy really doesn’t support that kind of lifestyle. But if they keep improving, wouldn’t that be great if ten years from now baseball games in Cuba are enjoyed with a nice box of popcorn? But there are a lot of things that have to come into place in the meantime to make that happen.”
Click below to hear C.J. Miller’s full conversation with ISDA Director Don Lamb during the “Taste of Shelby County Agriculture” banquet presented by Shelby County Ag Promotion, as Lamb discusses the further takeaways from being part of the recent NASDA trade mission to Havana, Cuba.
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