By JOHN PAIN
The Associated Press

MIAMI - Richard Waltzer doesn't hesitate when asked to identify his company's best customer - Cuban President Fidel Castro, of course.  "He's paying cash up front,'' said Waltzer, president of Splash Tropical Drinks of Fort Lauderdale. ``It doesn't get any better than that.''

Splash has sold more than $1 million in cola and juice concentrates, ice cream and daiquiri mixes and other food products to Castro's Cuba since the United States eased its trade embargo on the communist nation four years ago.

As Florida exports to Cuba grow, farmers, ranchers and businesses are joining their U.S. counterparts to push for an end to the embargo that has been in place for more than four decades to topple Castro.

Congress passed a law in 2000 letting U.S. farmers and companies sell livestock and agricultural and food products to Cuba for cash. The trade is one-way. Cuba can't sell anything to the United States.

The trade is contentious in Florida. Many businesses feel it is their right and duty to sell products and help the Cuban people. The state is home to Miami's Cuban exile community, many of whom are ardent opponents to any dealings with the Castro government.

Businesses trading with Cuba say they aren't just trying to make money. They say they are doing humanitarian work by helping feed average Cubans.

``Is someone trying to tell me to wait until there's a new president in Cuba before we can start feeding people again? If someone needs help, you help them right away,'' said John Parke Wright IV, a Naples cattle broker working to open trade. ``Our leadership has been wrong in trying to starve the island of Cuba.''

Some Cuban-American leaders disagree.

``They mask their greed with this veneer of humanitarianism but Mother Teresa they are not,'' said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami. ``I'm all for capitalism; just don't try to dress it up as humanitarian acts.''

She and other Cuban-Americans say the shipments only reach elite Cubans, a claim denied by the government and average citizens on the island.

Pedro Alvarez, head of the Cuban food import company Alimport, said this year at least 95 percent of the U.S. food Cuba buys is sold to average citizens at low cost on their monthly government food rations. The food includes skinless, boneless chicken breasts, eggs, rice and corn meal.

Florida had $13.4 million in exports to Cuba last year and $4.4 million in 2002, the U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division reported.

That's a drop in the bucket compared with Florida's trade with Brazil, the state's No. 1 export destination. Last year. Florida sent $2.5 billion worth of goods to Brazil.