Keith Murfield B.S.'75 Travels to Brookings and Cuba

Keith Murfield B.S.'75, Dairy Manufacturing visited the Dairy Science department on 2nd March to deliver a seminar entitled Practical Perspectives on Dairy Education. Earlier this year he was on an official trip to Cuba to work on negotiations involving milk powder sales. See story below.

Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Cuba imports powdered milk from US
Thursday, February 3, 2005
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuba bought 8,000 tons of powdered milk Thursday from the United States, despite the embargo imposed by Washington on the island for more than four decades.

The 22 million dollar deal was the latest evidence of the growing trade in farm and food products worth hundreds of millions of dollars yearly between the two countries, despite the embargo.
" This is a good deal for the producers in California and we intend to deepen these links," Keith Murfield, president of Dairy America, told reporters.

"This purchase brings us mutual benefits, which would be even better if there were no restrictions or limitations on trade between Cuba and the US," said Pedro Alvaraez, president of Cuba's state-owned Alimport.

In 1991, the US loosened its embargo to allow sales of food to Cuba for "humanitarian" purposes.

But in recent years the trade has become large and lucrative for US farmers and food manufacturers. Alimport estimated in December that US sales to Cuba in 2004 surpassed one billion dollars.

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South Dakota State University / Dairy Science Department
Dairy Microbiology Rm 109 / Phone: 605-688-4116
College of Agricultural and Biological Sciences