As the United States is starting to begin normalizing trade relations with Cuba, one Baldwin County company is already at the head of the pack in working with the island nation.

Last week, First Secretary of the Embassy of Cuba Miguel Fraga paid a visit to the Woerner Companies in Foley to discuss with the Woerners and city officials ways to improve and strengthen business relations between the two countries.

The Woerners have worked in sharing and collaborating on sod growth strategies with Cuba for some time, but as trade starts to open more with Cuba, Christina Woerner McInnis said their company’s newest business venture could stand to gain from that trade.

With the creation of Bon Secour Valley Ingredients (BSVI), an operation that includes a 40,000-square-foot dehydration plant to produce products like powders, granules and extracts that can be used in a variety of ways, McInnis said they’ve been able to open up new lines of business for local farmers to sell crops like sweet potatoes, chicory, kale and squash.

However, the buyers of their ingredients have asked for more.

“They wanted help trying to find ways to better source tropical fruit products,” McInnis said, “and that’s where Cuba comes in.”

McInnis said because of Cuba’s close proximity to the United States and the port in Mobile, BSVI was in a perfect location to be able to import tropical fruit like papaya, mango, bananas and pineapples.

“Because of already having been to Cuba to discuss turf grass and other practices, we already have a relationship with private farming co-ops that would love to be able to sell their products to us,” McInnis said. “With how close we are to Cuba, we would be able to take some of the amazingly fresh fruit from there and process it sooner than we are able to now, which means fresher, better products for our clients and their customers.”

The city of Foley also has a vested interest in this agreement, as the processing plant BSVI has located to is a building owned by the city, the old Peavey plant.

Foley Mayor John Koniar said he was excited to see what possibilities trade between the two nations could bring to this area, adding that Secretary Fraga was excited to see Foley’s new ball fields that were under construction for the city’s sports tourism initiative.

“This presents opportunities to create local jobs in our community in the future and opportunities to share cultural and athletic events as Cuban and U.S. relations improve,” Koniar said. “These are in exciting times in Foley and South Baldwin County.”

On the Cuban side, Secretary Fraga said he was pleased to see an American company that was looking to buy Cuban products.

“Right now, we are seeing a lot of companies wanting to sell products to Cuba, but very few are wanting to buy things from us,” Fraga said.

McInnis and her father, Woerner Companies CEO George Woerner, joked with Fraga that the agreement would be worth pursuing for the mangos alone, as both said they were the best, freshest fruit they had ever tasted.

“Even people who have never been to Cuba or had some of them know about the high quality of our mangos,” Fraga agreed.

McInnis said while BSVI is still in the installation process, they should be ready to ramp up production in June, which gives them time to jump through the hoops necessary to begin trade with Cuba.

“It’s not necessarily the government regulations that take so long to deal with, but the expense of the lawyers to apply for licenses and negotiate other things,” McInnis said. “We’re applying for the waiver already, and we have high hopes we’ll be able to move forward on doing this soon.”

If successful, the BSVI partnership with Cuban growers would likely be the first bilateral commerce agreement with Cuba that Alabama has seen in decades, a fact that isn’t lost on the Woerner family.

“We’ve wanted to push Foley as a key place for Baldwin County and for trade,” McInnis said. “This is a historic moment for all of us, and bringing commerce like this to Foley is only going to enhance this area and help more people learn about the great things we have going for us here.”