November 7, 2005

Dear Fellow Nebraskans:

We know the world is shrinking when the Governor of Nebraska can stay abreast of events in Scottsbluff, North Platte, Grand Island and Lincoln from a Havana hotel.

Several times during our state’s second trade mission to Cuba, I read news reports and interacted with staffers on state issues as if I were back at home in Nebraska. Many of the $27 million in contracts for agricultural products our delegates sold in Cuba were negotiated, at least in part, via telephone and e-mail contact from the states.

Our children and grandchildren are inheriting a world far smaller than the one you and I experienced as young adults. Technology is eliminating distance as a growth deterrent.

Few people know this emerging reality better than Nebraska’s farmers and ranchers, educators and business leaders. Each of their livelihoods increasingly depends on international relationships, international competition and international trade.

That is why it should surprise no one that Nebraska recently hosted the Japanese ambassador to the United States, Ryozo Kato, on Sen. Chuck Hagel’s invitation. Or that a few days later a second delegation of Nebraskans returned from Cuba having secured contracts for Nebraska products like corn, wheat, beef and beans.

I don’t have to tell Nebraskans that a single BSE incident in Washington altered the landscape for our cattle ranchers and beef producers because they know. Nor do I have to relay the importance to Nebraska’s dry bean producers of re-entering the Cuban market they had once supplied after a decades-long absence.

Recently, I had the opportunity to join Sen. Hagel in lobbying Ambassador Kato on behalf of the unquestionable safety and quality of Nebraska beef. It was the third time I have spoken with the ambassador since taking office in January, and the importance of such relationships cannot be overstated. He offered us some fresh optimism about the future of re-entering one of our beef trade’s most important markets, and we relayed Nebraskans’ frustration about the wait.

A few days later I boarded a plane for Miami and then Cuba to join my second delegation of Nebraska agricultural producers in Havana. While there, we got the good news online that Japan’s independent Food Safety Commission had approved a report supporting the safety of U.S. beef. The ambassador had told us that the commission might vote this way. He also said we might see Nebraska and U.S. beef back in Tokyo by mid-December.

Yet the good news for Nebraska agriculture was far from over. Our first Cuba delegation in August set a goal of opening a new market for Nebraska’s agricultural products, and we achieved a record $30 million commitment. In order to secure the agreement for Nebraska products, I agreed to return to Cuba. Our goal was simple: to execute binding contracts and begin fulfilling the agreement.

By visiting again with our new customers in Cuba, we once again displayed our trustworthiness and capabilities as a trading partner on the global stage. In this age of international competition, such relationships are key to fostering new and expanded markets for Nebraska’s high-quality products. We came home with what we hope is a long-term trading partner, and most importantly with contracts in-hand.

Nebraska products are expected to reach Cuban shores for the first time in half a century by late November or early December. Thanks to the same technologies that helped us seal the deals and keep tabs on Nebraska, we’ll be able to track their historic journey back to Havana.