Rice Groups Push Cuba Trade as Exports Fall

USA Rice staff led a Capitol Hill advocacy day for U.S.-Cuba agricultural trade as USDA cut its 2022-2023 rice export forecast.

Updated on Nov. 3, 2026 in Organic Food

Rice Groups Push Cuba Trade as Exports Fall

Live Poll

Should the U.S. ease its trade embargo to allow more business with Cuba?

USA Rice Federation staff helped lead an end-of-year advocacy day on Capitol Hill on behalf of the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba. The push comes as USDA's Economic Research Service reduced its 2022-2023 U.S. rice export forecast by 2.0 million hundredweight.

Why it matters

Cuba was once the leading market for U.S. long-grain rice before the 1962 trade embargo, and rice producers are facing low prices and high input costs. Expanding agricultural sales to Cuba is one avenue being pursued to offset weaker export demand.

USDA's Economic Research Service lowered its 2022-2023 U.S. rice export forecast by 2.0 million hundredweight to 69.0 million, the lowest level since 1991-92. In 2021, Cuba bought nearly 10 million hundredweight of rice from Vietnam and only about 4,000 hundredweight from U.S. sources, with it still unclear how much further trade can grow under current rules.

The players

USA Rice Federation

The USA Rice Federation is the national trade association representing U.S. rice growers, millers and related businesses across the rice-producing states.

U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba

The U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba is an industry coalition that advocates for expanding U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba.

USDA Economic Research Service

The Economic Research Service is the research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that produces official commodity and trade analysis.

The details

Representatives of the wheat, dairy and pulse industries joined USA Rice staff in congressional visits, including meetings with four Senate offices and five House offices from both parties. Under current policy, U.S. merchants may sell rice to Cuba only with cash paid up front and through third-country banks.

1962: The U.S. trade embargo on Cuba took effect following the revolution.
2000: The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Act passed, allowing rice sales to Cuba.
2021: Cuba imported rice mostly from Vietnam, with little coming from the U.S.
2022-2023 marketing year: USDA reduced the U.S. rice export forecast to 69.0 million hundredweight.
End of 2022: The Capitol Hill advocacy day for U.S.-Cuba agricultural trade was held.

Market Landscape

Cuba was the leading market for U.S. long-grain rice before the 1962 embargo, and the 2000 Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Act later opened a narrow cash-in-advance channel. Today that channel has not offset losses, as Cuba's imports shifted largely to Vietnam.

Rice prices and availability for shoppers are not directly affected by this advocacy effort, which targets export markets rather than domestic supply. Any change in trade rules would take time to alter product pricing or shelf availability.

The takeaway

Rice producers depend heavily on export markets, so shifts in trade policy with countries like Cuba can affect the broader grain economy. Readers following agricultural trade should watch how farm bill provisions treat export access.