By MIKKEL PATES
  Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald

  HAVANA - A historic North Dakota agricultural trade delegation to Cuba, led by Gov. John Hoeven, finished with a document signing ceremony Thursday in
  which the North Dakota Farm Bureau promised to help consummate sales of state farm products totaling about $2 million.

  The four-day visit, organized by the North Dakota Farm Bureau, was designed to strengthen trade possibilities with a country that has been out of the
  loop with the U.S. government for more than four decades because of its socialist/communist government.

  The North Dakotans ended their visit with a ceremonial signing of sales “agreements to purchase” designed to lead to deals on 500 tons of chickpeas,
  500 tons of lentils, 4,000 tons of barley and 5,000 tons of green or yellow peas, with a total value of over $2 million.

  The commodities together would fill 128 rail cars. The North Dakota Farm Bureau is acting as a “facilitator” between North Dakota sellers 

  and Alimport, the government-owned Cuban company that handles the country's imports of food.

  “We're not sales agents, we're a representative organization,” said Eric Aasmundstad, president of the North Dakota Farm Bureau. Aasmundstad and
  Hoeven had verbal agreements that they said would commit Alimport to buying products from North Dakotans, but leave the details to be confirmed by
  the actual sellers, and perhaps through the aid of experienced middlemen with appropriate financial backing.

  What's next

  “We're going to take these prices home, the volumes and prices you're willing to pay, to export companies, so they will know what they have to do,
  when you want it, and we're going to do that upon our return home,” Aasmundstad told Alimport officials Thursday.

  “These people can work to try to give you this product at this price. That's what we're going to do.”

  Pedro Alvarez, chairman and chief executive officer of Alimport, Cuba's trading company, used a baseball reference to describe the result as a “warmup”
  for potential increased sales between the North Dakota and Cuba. It was only one of numerous short-term delays that participants believe will lead to
  longer-term advancement of freer trade.

  The Cubans initially wanted the Farm Bureau to agree to solid, legal deals, but in the end settled for the ceremonial deals.

  Feverish activities

  The deals marked the end of four days feverish activities. An early highlight was the Tuesday opening of a cargo container with large sample lots of five
  commodities - spring wheat, wheat flour, green peas, yellow peas and barley - that the Cubans would like to buy more of.

  The group toured nearby wheat mills, a pasta factory and a bountiful citrus and vegetable cooperative, with thousands of acres of impressive groves.
  The Farm Bureau had preceded the week's visit in Cuba with a fanfare and the shipping of a 20-ton “container,” involving four tons each of hard red
  spring wheat, wheat flour, green peas, yellow peas and barley.

  Certifications

  The Farm Bureau's cargo was expected to make a symbolic statement of North Dakota agricultural quality and capacity but in the late stages could have
  become an embarrassment because the organization hadn't anticipated the need for required phytosanitary certifications on some of its products.

  The wheat and wheat flour didn't require the certifications, but the peas and barley did. In the end, the North Dakota Agriculture Department back home
  helped to complete the certifications, Aasmundstad said. He acknowledged he and the Farm Bureau hadn't known all he should have known about the
  phytosanitary requirements, attributing the oversight to the myriad details of making the trip happen.

  The week also involved sometimes dicey shuttle negotiations between Aasmundstad and Alvarez, who was in the national U.S. news early this spring
  when his visa to travel in the United States was denied by the Bush administration. Alvarez praised the delegation for “an extremely professional visit”
  that will enable North Dakota farmers to increase exports of staples to Cuba.

  Alvarez said that although wheat is not one of the products imported and that shipments until now have been small and symbolic, the commodity “has
  not been overlooked.” Alvarez said that although financing couldn't be arranged for the purchases because of current U.S. policy, and are in cash as
  required, “we hope that one day trade will be both ways.”

  Invited to return

  “The Cuban people are a friendly people with both the people of the United States and North Dakota,” he said, inviting the delegation to return in
  September, when the Farm Bureau is scheduled to be involved in a first-ever U.S. Food and Agriculture Exposition.

  On the political side, the governor steered clear of statements disloyal to the Bush administration, which strongly opposes normalizing trade with Cuba
  under the Castro administration without changes in Cuban policies, including the ability for outside companies operating in Cuba to hire their own
  workers and for the workers to organize in their own, nonstate unions.

  The visit was punctuated on Wednesday with news of a flurry of votes from the U.S. Congress that - if passed and signed into law - could lead to more
  normalized trade. The Cubans seemed cheered by the votes, as well as Hoeven's visit.

  “Just his being here is significant,” said one Cuban government official involved in the event, who spoke on condition he not be identified. The official said
  the Cubans understood the governor's political restraints and expected nothing more than his efforts to promote trade.

  The Herald is sharing costs for Pates' trip with the North Dakota Farm Bureau.