Cuba sharply reduces US food imports amid hardship

HAVANA, AP/Paul Haven—Cuba has slashed food and agriculture imports from the United States, its largest food supplier, as the government tightens its belt in a crippling economy.

Imports fell 26 percent in 2009 to $528 million, after peaking at $710 million the year before, according to a report Wednesday by the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Economic Trade Council, which provides nonpartisan commercial and economic information about the island and claims to have no position on policy.

"The decrease has nothing to do with U.S. regulations, U.S. law or U.S. policy," said John Kavulich, a senior policy analyst at the council. "It is a function of Cuba not having the resources."

Kavulich said Cuba has increasingly turned to other countries like Vietnam that will sell it lower-quality food and not ask for payment for as long as two years.

Read the full story at The Washington Post.