US Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, is calling on Congress to expand agricultural trade with Cuba to benefit farmers in the Midwest. Cuba currently gets its most of its wheat from Canada and Europe but it can take weeks to get there. Jordan Hildebrand, spokeswoman for the Kansas Wheat Commission and the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers, says Kansas can do it better.
Wheat farmers testified in front of the Agriculture Committee this week encouraging Congress to fully lift the trade embargo with Cuba. Republican Senator Roberts told the farmers that Congress has to take a realistic, step-by-step approach toward lifting the embargo but agreed that it opening the Cuban market will greatly benefit Kansas agriculture.
