Cuba lifts ban on U.S. rice

Cuba lifts ban on U.S. rice Cuba has lifted its ban on imports of U.S. long-grain rice, the director of the U.S. division of Cuba's state-run food purchasing agency, Alimport, told a group of U.S. business representatives visiting Havana Friday.
   Cuba imposed the ban on U.S. rice imports last year, after the United States announced in August that some rice samples had tested positive for trace amounts of a genetically modified strain not approved for consumption. But Alimport's Raul Sanchez told a group of U.S. medical company representatives that Cuba had conducted its own tests and decided the U.S. rice would not present any problems, according to an Associated Press report from Havana.
   Sanchez added that Cuba had already resumed U.S. rice purchases and has imported some 30,000 tons of the rice during April.
   Most U.S. rice exports to Cuba move through Gulf Coast ports.