Cuba has struggled for decades to feed its people, but because of U.S. sanctions and the impacts of the COVID pandemic, the country is becoming more desperate for help buying U.S. grain and meat.

Railroads are a vital piece of the supply chain for U.S. agriculture and are usually a cost-effective and reliable way to get agricultural goods to their destination.

Leaders from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) on April 13 issued a joint statement urging coordinated action on food security.

A number of factors have converged over the last 18 months to send global agricultural commodity prices to near-record levels.

World food prices jumped nearly 13% in March to a new record high as the war in Ukraine caused turmoil in markets for staple grains and edible oils, the U.N. food agency said on Friday.

Higher fertilizer prices are making the world’s food supply more expensive and less abundant, as farmers skimp on nutrients for their crops and get lower yields.

Fatalities and injuries from grain engulfment, along with falls from bins, have been a consistent concern in agriculture over the past years