Maine business delegation continues to pitch Cuba on exports

COURTESY / CEDAR SPRING AGRICULTURAL CO. A Maine agricultural delegation in 2022 displayed a Maine State Flag at the Monument to the Victims of the USS Maine on the Malecón Boulevard in Havana, Cuba. Delegation organizer Doyle Marchant is third from right.

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By Laurie Schreiber

A group of Maine business representatives recently returned from Cuba as part of an effort to open export opportunities for small and medium enterprises.

The trip to Havana, on Jan. 8-9, was part of a Maine-Cuba Business Forum developed by Doyle Marchant, president of Cedar Spring Agricultural Co. in Yarmouth, in coordination with the Cuba Ministry of Agriculture and Grupo Agricole.

Maine speakers promoted export opportunities and presented the following topics:

Frederick Lipp, shareholder with Maine's largest law firm, Bernstein Shur, spoke about strategies for Cuban small- and mid-sized enterprises;
Janine Basillon-Cary, a former Maine International Trade Center official and president of Portland business consulting group Monserrat Group, talked about the elements of "go-to-market forces;"
Mary Allen Lindemann, president and owner of Portland-based Coffee by Design, led a talk about coffee as a "catalyst for change."

The forum was developed to help a growing group of new Cuban entrepreneurs navigate international business with U.S. companies. The sale of food and other agricultural commodities is permitted by the U.S. Treasury, according to a news release.

A Cuban legislative decree, codified in 2021, offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to develop and grow businesses in Cuba from sole proprietors to companies with as many as 100 employees. The decree developed a framework for businesses in Cuba to register as a Society of Reasonability Limited, a designation similar to incorporation in other countries.

The new regulations offer entrepreneurs the ability to create durable contracts for trade and market goods.

“By removing the bureaucratic challenges of government as buyer, this new initiative allows market forces to improve the development of Maine-Cuba trade,” said Marchant.

Marchant has a history spanning more than two decades of working to bring Maine products to Cuba. In 2023, Cuba’s Ministry of Agriculture asked Marchant to chair development of the business forum to help educate new owners of small and medium enterprises about essential aspects of international business. The speakers were invited based on specific areas of expertise in entrepreneurship, international business and communications.

Marchant organized a similar delegation, with fishing and agricultural industry representatives, in 2022, with the goal of developing a pipeline of Maine exports to the island country.

Helping to coordinate details with Cuban ministry officials was Ramiro Triana Abreu in Havana.