American Soybean Association (ASA) President Richard Wilkins, a soybean farmer from Greenwood, Del., welcomed an announcement from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack that enables checkoff funds to be used for market expansion in the island nation of Cuba. ASA is in favor of lifting the embargo on Cuba, and has been supportive of the Obama Administration's efforts to normalize relations with the Cuban government and people. In a statement, Wilkins pointed to the commonsense approach taken by USDA in lifting the restrictions on spending checkoff dollars in Cuba:

"Today's announcement is a big step forward in terms of expanding the Cuban marketplace for U.S. soy. The important thing to remember about checkoff funds is that they're farmer dollars--they belong to producers to do with as best they see fit to grow their industries. Because this is the farmers' money, it's only logical that we as farmers ought to be able to use it to expand whatever markets we see as the most promising for our individual commodities.

Over the past few years, we've seen Cuba--an emerging economy just 90 miles from our shore with a growing demand for meat protein--as a source of potential growth for U.S. soy, but Cuba is a market in dire need of attention. We have lost market share there year over year for both whole beans and soybean meal, and we’ve lost the oil market entirely to our South American competition. This is a byproduct of the embargo and our resulting inability to truly give that market the attention it deserves. That's why ASA as the policy organization of the soybean family maintains a policy position in favor of removing the Cuban embargo entirely. Hand-in-hand with that effort is the ability to use soybean farmer money through the United Soybean Board and our international marketing arm at the U.S. Soybean Export Council to explore what opportunities exist for us in the Cuban marketplace."