News / Americas
US Companies Head For Cuba -- Slowly
Last updated on: March 20, 2016 5:36 PM
TAMPA, FLORIDA—
Saul Berenthal, with business partner Horace Clemmons, hopes to assemble a small, inexpensive tractor factory in Cuba.
Two small U.S. companies are working to set up businesses in Cuba, as relations between Washington and Havana thaw. But after months of effort, the firms that want to build tractors and distribute food must still jump bureaucratic hurdles to set up the first new U.S. business operations Cuba in decades.
Horace Clemmons and Saul Berenthal hope to assemble a small, inexpensive tractor in a factory in Cuba.
The veteran U.S. software engineers designed the vehicle to be cheap, simple, and just right for 40-hectare farms in Cuba.
They hope to have their Cleber Tractor plant running early next year, turning out 1,000 tractors annually.
Cuban-born Berenthal traveled with a group of business owners to Havana to take part in an entrepreneurship event with U.S. President Barack Obama. Before leaving, he told VOA commerce that benefits people in both nations will be a "healing mechanism" that improves relations.
Have 'the green light'
“We are ready to go, and we have gotten the green light, but the devil is in the details. We still have to go through a lot of paperwork and a lot of bureaucracy and a lot of agreement from multiple sources as to the details," he said.
While the partners have approval from Washington and Havana to proceed, they still have to cope with sometimes frustrating bureaucracies in both nations.
Clemmons, who grew up around farming and loves machines, said the tractor they've developed can get spare parts from many sources.
He also said the arrangement keeps costs down for farmers, boosting the chance the company will succeed and eventually export tractors from Cuba.
“It’s inevitable we’ll make a profit, and I believe it’s inevitable that we’ll be mass producing tractors in Cuba in the near future," Clemmons said.
He said the plan is for the factory to assemble kits that are made in the United States, along with some "off the shelf" parts from various sources.
Not yet conducive to business
Two other U.S. entrepreneurs are headed for Cuba seeking permission to set up a wholesale distribution market similar to a wholesale produce distribution market they ran, and then sold, in Tampa, Florida.
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