Cuba has begun to change as it’s started to open itself up to the rest of the world but they still have a long way to go.
John and Holly Hennenfent attested to this, as the owners of Munson Hybrids recently made a trip to the country.
They went with a group from the Independent Professional Seed Association, who put the journey together so member companies and others in the seed industry could see Cuban agriculture and possible business opportunities.
Most of the advances in farming since the late 50’s have been lost on the Cubans, who became a communist dictatorship in 1959.
John recalls to Galesburg’s Morning News on WGIL an interesting exchange with the man in charge of seed supply for all of Cuba.
“The question came up, ‘how many hectares or acres of corn do you have.’ He didn’t know, ” Hennenfent says. “He said we’d have to talk to a gentleman that was in a meeting the previous day because that’s his job, but you’d think the gentleman that’s in charge of supplying all the corn seed would know how many hectares are being grown so he’d know how much seed to supply.”
John hopes to get a group of Cubans to travel to the U.S. in September.
Hennenfent thinks that the better U.S. and Cubans understand each others agriculture capabilities, the better they can find chances to work together.
