US agriculture delegation visits Cuba

Havana - The most important US agricultural delegation to visit Cuba in more than a decade began three days of meetings on Monday, hoping to find potential business partners and urge the US Congress to lift the trade embargo against the Caribbean nation.

Two former agriculture secretaries, a number of state agriculture officials and representatives of various state farm bureaus are among the 95 people whose visit was organised by the US Agriculture Coalition for Cuba, formed after the December 17 announcement that the United States and Communist-run Cuba would restore diplomatic relations.

"The message we hope will get back to Washington is that we are a unifying voice that would like to see Congress act in 2015 and end the embargo," Cargill executive Devry Boughner Vorwerk, chairperson of the coalition, told Reuters.