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P.L. Thomas (PLT)
The products sold by US food producers in Havana included pork, corn and soybeans, according to reports from the Associated Press.
Executives from 114 food companies from 25 US states were in the Cuban capital this week, trying to increase their sales of goods to the country.
Rice, wheat, corn, soy products, peas, eggs, chicken and pork were among the goods that the companies would like to sell to Cuba in greater quantities.
The business leaders were accompanied by a group of US congressmen and women interested in opening up agricultural trade between the two countries.
The Congress delegation was led by Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro, and included lawmakers from across the political spectrum, namely Democrats Marion Berry of Arkansas and Bob Etheridge of North Carolina, and Republicans Rodney Alexander of Louisiana and Jack Kingston of Georgia.
Neither the US-Cuba Trade Association in Washington nor the spokesperson for congresswoman Rosa DeLauro were able to comment on the trip to Cuba before FoodNavigator-USA.com's publication deadline.
Washington continues to enforce a 45-year-old embargo on exports to Cuba, but US food and agricultural products can be sold directly to Cuba under a law passed by the US Congress in 2000.
Since Havana first took advantage of the law change in 2001, it is believed to have spent more than $2.2 billion on purchasing American farm products.
The US International Trade Commission, at the request of the Senate Finance Committee, is currently investigating the sanctions against Cuba to evaluate whether they are harmful to US trade interests.
It is expected to issue its findings by the end of June.
It would be mutually beneficial if the trade restrictions were lifted. The US would be able to export more and Cuba, whose agriculture has been beset with problems in recent years, would receive products that are in short supply locally.
However, some republican politicians, including president George W Bush, have called for a tightening of the export embargo in a final attempt to force the collapse of Fidel Castro's communist regime.
