The president of the Nasda Farmers Society (United States), Ted McKinney, said today that he is traveling to Cuba to strengthen ties of friendship and explore trade possibilities, according to press reports.

A note published Thursday in the Granma newspaper stressed that the U.S. agricultural sector is interested in doing business with this country.

Nasda is a non-partisan, non-profit association that represents the elected and appointed commissioners, secretaries and directors of the departments of agriculture in the 50 states and four territories of the United States.

Granma adds that the delegation had talks with producers associated with different productive forms, such as cooperatives or micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and researchers and academics from the Agrarian University.

A delegation from the National Association of U.S. Departments of Agriculture (Nasda) traveled to Cuba with the objective of identifying future business relations, especially with the new economic actors, to dynamize production processes.

Ted McKinney commented at a press conference this Wednesday at the Grand Aston Hotel in Havana, that the purpose of this trip is to strengthen ties of friendship and explore the possibilities of trade and cooperation between the two countries.

He added that, with the contacts at their disposal, they can identify opportunities for bilateral exchange, imports, exports and trade in general.

He said that they remain optimistic about the possibilities of future cooperation in the sector, and expressed his satisfaction with the decision to create these new economic actors in the country that are the MSMEs, something that can lead to greater and better trade contacts between the two nations.

For his part, the Secretary of Agriculture of the US state of Louisiana, Michael Strain, referring to the blockade imposed by the government of his country against the island, pointed out that these are complex issues between the two countries.

In this regard, he stressed that these visits, on an ongoing basis, are also a way of moving the needle for the improvement of relations.

Meanwhile, Ernesto Baron, head of the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council for Central and South America and the Caribbean, said that, as is well known, this branch of agriculture already has a presence in the Cuban market and exports significant quantities of low-cost, high-quality poultry meat.

However, he added, not only do they want to increase exports of their products, but also bilateral trade relations.

McKinney explained that Nasda is an association that has been in existence for 170 years, and groups together the secretaries, commissioners, directors or those who hold an equivalent position in the States of the Union.