Governor Announces Additional Contracts with Cuba
Governor Announces Additional Contracts with Cuba
Governor John Baldacci today announced that the recently concluded trade mission to Cuba adds two more companies under the previous $10 million export agreement signed last year. In December, a delegation signed a letter of understanding for up to $10 million worth of agricultural purchases of Maine goods by Cuba. The Joint Communique was signed in Cuba by Maine Department of Agriculture Commissioner Robert Spear and Alimport (Cuban import agency) CEO, Pedro Alvarez Borrego. The United States lifted the embargo for certain agricultural products in 2001.
The most recent Maine delegation to Cuba, led by Commissioner Spear and Doyle Marchant, president of Cedar Spring Agricultural Company LLC, resulted in additional agreements for the sale of lumber and sardines to be exported from Maine. Governor Baldacci said, "These additional agreements show the importance of supporting expansion into the new export market that Cuba offers Maine agricultural producers. Promoting new markets for traditional Maine industries grows the Maine economy."
Jim Robbins, president of Robbins Lumber in Searsmont, said that the contracts "really show how Maine family-owned companies like ours can look to new markets to expand a customer base." Robbins's company has contracted for an initial order of thirty shipping containers of pine, spruce, fir and hardwood.
Speaking for Connors Bumblebee, Brian Thomas, Territory Sales Manager, Latin America, said, "This contract will help to put increased production into our newly retrofitted and automated sardine plant in Prospect Harbor, keeping much needed sardine canning jobs in Maine." Bumblebee has contracted for multiple shipping containers of sardines.
Robbins Lumber has been in the wood business since 1881 and boasts an annual production of approximately 25 million board feet of Eastern white pine as well as managing more than 30,000 acres of working pine forests. Connors Bumblebee leads the world in production of sardines and are the largest canned seafood company and maintains a highly automated plant in Prospect Harbor.
"Both these companies meet a need for Maine agricultural products in Cuba: lumber for structural uses and household manufacturing; and sardines which provide a much needed, inexpensive source of protein to the Cuban people," said Doyle Marchant, who arranged for this second delegation to meet Alimport officials in Havana.
Governor Baldacci thanked Commissioner Spear for his work in obtaining these agreements. The Governor noted that the Commissioner is steadily improving following a recent illness while in Cuba. The Commissioner remains in a Miami, Florida hospital. The Governor thanked all those in Cuba and the United States who cared for Commissioner Spear.
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