Cuba Suspends U.S. Cattle Purchases
Tue Dec 30,10:21 AM by Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba said on Tuesday it had suspended purchases of live animals from the United States but expressed confidence it would resume them soon and add beef to a growing list of imported U.S. foods.

"We have some outstanding contracts for cattle ... and we hope they can be executed after the epidemic is resolved," Pedro Alvarez, chairman of Cuba's state food importer Alimport, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

All trade between Cuba and the United States was cut off after President Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s 1959 Communist revolution but Washington eased the embargo in 2000 to allow agricultural sales for cash. Cuba began buying American farm products in December 2001 and this year became the U.S. cattle industry's newest client.
Alimport is the only Cuban company authorized by Castro's government to purchase agricultural products from the United States.
"I am confident the U.S. industry and scientists will stop the epidemic and normalize the situation ... I hope as soon as possible so we can continue and increase our purchases of cattle and begin buying meat," Alvarez said.

Alvarez said the approximately $350 million in U.S. food products purchased to date included 500 head of cattle, which were under observation.
Outstanding orders amounted to a similar number as part of a program designed to evaluate the animals' performance on the island with a view toward purchasing larger numbers in the future, he said.
Alimport was in the process of negotiating its first U.S. beef purchases when the case of madcow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was discovered earlier this month in a Holstein in Washington state.

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