The Unlikely Entrepreneurs Behind Cuba’s First U.S. Factory
This story appears in the February 16, 2016 issue of Forbes.
Horace Clemmons and Saul Berenthal, both 72-year-old retired software engineers, are slated to become the first Americans since 1959 to set up a manufacturing plant in Cuba. Their plan: produce small, easily maintained tractors for use by family farmers. Under new regulations issued by the Obama administration, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control gave the Paint Rock, AL-based partners the go-ahead last week.
Once they get final approval from the Cubans, they anticipate that in early 2017, they’ll start building a factory in a special economic zone set up by the Cuban government in the port city of Mariel. In this condensed and edited interview, Berenthal describes his transition from software entrepreneur to Cuban manufacturing pioneer.
The Interview
Susan Adams: Tell me about your personal connection to Cuba.
Saul Berenthal: I was born and raised in Cuba. I came to the U.S. in 1960 right after the revolution. First I came and then my parents. My family in Cuba is in the cemetery. But I have lots of friends there and I’ve been traveling back and forth since 2007.
Adams: How did you get the idea to build tractors?
Berenthal: I understood the needs of the Cuban economy. Cuba has to import more than 70% of what people eat. They’re still using oxen to farm the land. Our motivation really is to help the Cuban farmer be more productive.
Adams: But you and Mr. Clemmons are software engineers. How did you know the first thing about farm equipment?
Berenthal: Horace was born and raised on a farm in Alabama. He’s the farming expert and I’m the Cuba expert.
Adams: Just because he was raised on a farm wouldn’t mean he would know how to make tractors.
Berenthal: We hired an engineering company in Alabama that helped us pick up an existing design that was appropriate for what we wanted to do. We brought in state-of-the-art technology and produced the tractors. We have a tractor in Cuba already that’s going to be shown at an agricultural fair in March.
Adams: It sounds like you were motivated less by profit than by a desire to help the Cuban economy and Cuban-American relations.
Berenthal: Yes, our motivation is really to help Cuban farmers be more productive. Through commerce and trade, we can bring Cuban and American people closer together.
Adams: What about making money?
Berenthal: Our business model says we are investing in Cuba and reinvesting any profits we make. We’ll do what we did with our other businesses. We’ll create value and then sell the company.
Read the full interview here on Forbes.
