Havana, January 24 (RHC) -- The opening of relations between the US and Cuba could be very good news for American exporters, among them, farmers. The decades-long US economic blockade has made doing business very difficult, but that situation could soon change. Wheat farmers in particular see good times ahead.

For Larry Flohr of Chappell, Nebraska, the job of farming is never done.  Flohr's always looking for a spark for his hard red winter wheat business and now he may have one: a new market thousands of miles away, in Cuba.

Cuba doesn't grow wheat commercially. It imports most of the crop from the European Union and Canada. But that could change significantly if U.S. farmers reestablish a relationship with Cuba.

"First of all that would put us in a very competitive position because of the location. It would be a significant, significant market. We could be the dominant player," Flohr said.

Harlan Abrahams, a Cuba scholar who first visited the country in 1998, thinks demand could help push U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba from 700 million dollars to over a billion dollars in the next few years.