HAVANA (AP) -- Michigan farmers were touring a Cuban agricultural
                  cooperative Wednesday on the first full day of their fact-finding trip to the
                  communist island in hopes to make contacts necessary to sell dry beans to the
                  country in the future.

                  Michigan Farm Bureau President Jack Laurie and Michigan Bean Commission
                  Executive Director Bob Green were heading the delegation of dry bean growers,
                  which arrived in Havana late Tuesday afternoon.

                  The Cuban government has said it will not buy one cent of American food in the
                  wake of a new law that allows Fidel Castro's government to buy U.S. foodstuffs
                  for the first time in about 40 years, but places tough restrictions on financing of
                  such sales.

                  Nevertheless, the Michigan group hopes the trip will be the first step in providing
                  a new market for the state's annual production of dry beans, estimated at 5
                  million hundredweight. Cuba buys 4 million hundredweight of dry beans
                  annually, according to the Michigan Farm Bureau.

                  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.