After half a century, Cuba will be selling charcoal as its first export to the United States.
This landmark deal was announced by Cuba on Thursday saying they will sell charcoal to a US company.
This is a part of the fragile rapprochement between the former Cold War foes.
Based on its announcement on Cuba’s official media outlet Cubadebate, the sale of 40 tons of charcoal which came from the woody plant marabu comes at a time when the two-year US-Cuban detente looks under threat. It is worth around $17,000, and is also largely symbolic.
According to Cuban authorities, the first delivery is scheduled for Jan. 18, two days before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump on January 20.
Earlier, Trump has threatened to row back on the normalization of US-Cuba relations unless he gets a “better deal.”
“This is a first contract but we hope to continue our relationship for many years and not just with vegetal charcoal, but other products that we have ready to export like honey and coffee,” Isabel O’Reilly, the director of state exporter Cubaexport.
After the visit last year of outgoing US President Barack Obama, he has facilitated some commercial links with executive orders, even a damaging US trade embargo on Cuba remains in place.
In early 2015, the outgoing administration eased restrictions on imports of goods and services from private Cuban entrepreneurs.
However, it was unclear, how this would work in practice given that individuals cannot independently import and export products or services under the laws of Cuba.
In its announcement, under the charcoal deal, private cooperatives will deliver the product to a local packager that will sell it on to state-run export firm CubaExpo, which in turn will deal directly with US company Coabana Trading LLC.
O’Reilly added that the agreement indicates that Coabana Trading will pay $420 per ton. This is above the usual market price of $340 to $380 per ton for Cuban charcoal.
Cubadebate said that annually, Cuba exports up to 80,000 tons of charcoal to about six different countries. Aside from those countries, it was also seeking to sell charcoal to Great Britain and Germany.
Since Trump was elected as the next president in November, Cuba and the Obama administration have been scrambling to deepen and cement their detente, through bilateral agreements and commercial links.
