2. The following manufactured substances, extracts, and mixtures and compounds of butter shall be recognized and designated as "oleomargarine": All Substances known heretofore as oleomargarine, oleo, oleo oil, "butterine," "lardine," "suine," and neutral lard; all mixtures and compounds of oleomargarine, compounds of tallow, beef fat, suet, lard, lard oil, vegetable oil, annatto, and other coloring materials, intestinal fat, and waste fat, imitating or resembling butter, or made with the intention or purpose of sale as butter or as a butter substitute. 3. The customs officials, besides their other duties, shall inspect all importations of oleomargarine. Any person, firm, or corporation attempting to import aleomargarine into the island of Cuba without complying with the requirements terein set forth shall be deemed to have forfeited the merchandise by reason of fraudulent importation, and the merchandise shall be seized and sold by the collector of customs in the form and manner prescribed for the sale of seized and confiscated goods. The proceeds of such sales shall be deposited in the treasury of the island of Cuba. 4. In addition to the penalty prescribed in paragraph 3 of this article, any person, firm, or corporation failing to comply with the requirements set forth in this article shall be liable to the fines and penalties prescribed in article 221 of the customs regulations, as if such frauds were committed against the customs revenue of Čuba. (Customs regulations, art. 71.) Soup pastes shall not be detained, provided their packages comply with the sanitary requirements. Should the suspicions of the customs collectors be aroused, they may call any case to the attention of the local director of the board of health. A sworn declaration in accordance with the official form, regarding the use for which the merchandise is intended must be presented with the entry papers for the following articles: Neutral lard, imported by manufacturers of alimentary products (No. 238); oleo oil, imported by manufacturers of alimentary products (No. 244); broom corn (No. 269a); barley for brewing (No. 255). PURE FOOD LAWS The addition of. The uses of substances other than condiments for the preservation of meat and other foodstuffs is subject to the following regulations: Additions of any kind must be clearly shown on the label. one one-thousandth part of benzoate of soda is permitted, provided the addition is indicated on the container. Meat preservatives will be prohibited except the use of common salt, sugar, wood smoke (humo de madera), vinegar, nitrate of potash (nitrato de potasa). The Cuban food laws prohibit the use in foods of substances tending to diminish the commercial or food value of the product. It is also prohibited to employ in coloring of any foodstuff the mineral colors which contain lead, antimony, copper, chrone, arsenic, uranium, and, among the organic colors, gamboge, aconitus neppalus, coal-tar colors, and in general all those that may be injurious to health. The introduction, storage, and sale of adulterated condensed milk is prohibited. Condensed milk is taken to mean pure milk from which a part of the water has been extracted, or from which the water has been partly extracted and sugar added. The term adulterated applies to condensed milk of which the proportion of fat is less than 25 per cent of the total solids and to which has been added some foreign substance, other than sugar, for the preservation of the milk. To each can of condensed milk, or any other kind of preserved milk, must be attached a label stating, in Spanish, when the can was filled and the maximum time during which the milk will remain in good condition. ADVERTISING IN CUBA The market for food products in Cuba is highly competitive and judicious advertising, particularly of such items as canned goods and grocery specialities, is as necessary in developing and maintaining demand as it is in the United States. The principal advertising mediums used in Cuba are newspapers, circulars, posters, and painted signs, motion-picture slides, electric signs, and street-car signs. Electric signs are used chiefly in Habana, although they have been introduced in other cities, notably Santiago de Cuba. Some of the leading Habana newspapers are El Mundo, Diario de la Marina, La Prensa, La Noche, Mercurio, and the Habana Post. These and a few other Habana papers reach all parts of the island. None of these papers have "fixed rates" which are actually observed. Some advertising is also done in the Cuban magazines, such, for example, as Social, Carteles, Cuba Ilustrada, and El Figaro. It should also be pointed out that a number of the more popular American magazines circulate in Cuba and reach the American and English population as well as a certain number of the English-speaking native population. The distribution of circulars and handbills is a favored form of advertising among the merchants of the larger cities. These are given out on the streets, distributed from door to door, and sent through the mail. Outdoor advertising is used more extensively in Habana than elsewhere in Cuba, although painted posters are used in a number of other large centers, particuarly Santiago de Cuba. Electric signs are widely used in Habana. Street-car advertising is in the form of posters inside the cars and signs painted on the upper parts of the windows. It is estimated that over 500 street cars are in daily operation in Habana and the suburbs. There are numerous motion-picture houses in all the cities of importance in Cuba. Consequently, advertising by means of motionpicture slides reaches many of the most probable consumers. It is most important that advertising copy be written in idiomatic Spanish. It is also advisable in most cases to place the name and address of the Cuban agent on such copy, so that inquiries can be handled promptly. The Cuban customs tariff permits the free entry of advertising material whether brought in as first or second class mail, provided that samples are taxed according to their classification and values under the tariff.1 TRADE-MARKS The importance of the registration of trade-marks is greater in Cuba than in the United States, for the reason that in the former country the rights of property in a mark are derived from the law and depend entirely on the registration of the mark, whereas in the United States use is the basis of property in a mark.2 1 For additional information on advertising see Advertising Methods in Cuba, Special Agents Series No 178, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Sold by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, and the district and cooperative offices of the bureau for 10 cents. Data on advertising mediums and methods are on file in the Specialties Division, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. 2 See Trade Information Bulletin No. 219, Trade-Mark Protection in Latin America, for trade-mark law of Cuba. A distinctive and striking trade-mark is even more importance in Cuba than in this country, since the degree of literacy is less and pictures make an impression where the printed word does not. The use of colors, particularly red and yellow, on labels, posters, and the like is advisable. The trade name should be easily pronounceable in Spanish, and care should be taken to see that it is not misleading when written or spoken in that language. The registrable qualities of a trade-mark or name should be passed upon by a competent trademark attorney. It is of particlar importance that the trade-mark be registered in the name of the American manufacturer or exporter rather than in that of the agent. CHARACTER AND ORGANIZATION OF THE CUBAN MARKET WHEAT FLOUR Cuba is distinctly a white-bread country in spite of the fact that it neither produces wheat nor manufactures flour. Cuba gets most of its flour from the United States. Corn meal is used as a wheatflour substitute to a limited extent, principally for cooking purposes. Hard-crusted, fine-textured white bread, made in long loaves which are cut in sections rather than slices, is one of the principal items of the Cuban diet. Except to a limited extent in some American and English homes, bread baking is confined to the many Cuban bakeries. As a result, only a limited amount of flour is sold by retailers for bread-making purposes. Hard-wheat flour is preferred, although the bakers, in order to secure the proper strength and rising qualities, make a blend—a common one being two parts hard-wheat flour to one part soft. Bread is made either with or without lard. American flour mills doing business in Cuba sell chiefly through commission agents, which in turn sell to the large exportating jobbers. Some flour is sold directly to bakers, but this is not the approved practice. One large American company maintains a branch office in Habana. Practically all sales of flour in Cuban imports are made on a c. i. f. basis. Various degrees of credit are allowed, but the most common practice among conservative mills is to sell on the basis of drafts payable 30 days after the arrival of the flour. The practice of shipping flour on consignment is dangerous and should be strictly avoided. OTHER WHEAT PRODUCTS Biscuits and crackers, macaroni, vermicelli and other alimentary pastes, and cereal breakfast foods are the principal manufactured cereals imported into Cuba. In the trade in biscuits and crackers the demand for fancy biscuits is somewhat larger than that for the cheaper varieties. The United States has always been the principal source of the lower grade crackers and, since the war, for the higher grade as well. The United Kingdom is the only important competitor of the United States for the Cuban trade in biscuits-and then only in the higher price product. There are a number of biscuit manufacturers on the island, located chiefly in Habana, which offer some competition in this market. Such concerns, however, are at the disadvantage of having to import all the material both for the biscuits and for the containers. The prime factors in securing and maintaining a market in Cuba for biscuits and crackers are quality and packing. As indicated above, the higher grade biscuits are in the best demand. Sweet biscuits seem to be preferred. The packing is an extremely important consideration in as much as crackers deteriorate rapidly in a wet climate such as Cuba's. They should be packed, therefore, in hermetically sealed tins. The market for marconi and other alimentary pastes in Cuba is a fairly important one, but it is supplied largely by domestic production. There are in Habana a half-dozen manufacturers of alimentary paste and eight or more manufacturers of vermicelli. It is the cheaper grades that are produced domestically and the higher grades are imported, principally from the United States and Spain. In the past cereal breakfast foods have played an unimportant part in the Cuban diet, but the demand is being stimulated by widespread advertising. One importer and retailer of fine and standard groceries in Habana, for example, reports that in the first half of 1924 he sold 300 cases of breakfast foods as compared with 124 cases during the entire year 1923. The prescription of cereal breakfast foods by doctors and the adopting of the custom of eating such foods by residents of Cuba who have visited the United States are additional factors that have tended to increase the demand for these products. As in the case of biscuits, the packing is very important, since breakfast foods deteriorate rapidly in Cuba on account of the wet climate and the prevalence of tropical insects. It is believed that if cereals. were packed in tin containers the sales might be considerably increased. RICE Rice is a very important item in the Cuban diet, and several million pounds are imported into the island yearly. With the exception of a small quantity of high-grade, pure white rice from the United States and Spain, the Cuban demand is for the low-priced rice of Asiatic origin. The fact that the rice is off color, with many broken kernels and somewhat musty, is not seriously objected to by the average consumer for the reason that rice is used in Cuba largely in combination with other foods such as meats, fish, and beans, and when served plain is tinged with some coloring material, such as saffron. The Cuban consumer does insist, however, that the rice after preparation be loose-grained and in a condition to absorb moist In this respect, Asiatic rice is more satisfactory than that produced in the United States. There is no substitute for rice in the Cuban dietary, and the only effect of high prices is to cause a larger consumption of the lower priced grades. One of the reasons advanced in Cuba for the preference for rice from the Orient is that such rice has a far longer storage period than American rice, which has the glutinous qualities objected to by the Cuban consumer, Uncoated rice is much preferred to that which has been coated with glucose, talc, or other material. Rice shipments from the Far East to Cuba are handled in a number of ways. The system of confirmed bankers' credits is usually used when the rice is imported directly from Saigon into the principal rice importing ports, Habana and Cienfuegos. Arrivals in other ports are usually paid for in cash. Quotations are usually c. i. f. Habana or Cienfuegos. Burma rice millers sell largely through London firms with permanent representatives in Cuba, the latter selling in turn to wholesalers of foodstuffs. A large part of the rice imported into the island is handled by a few rice-importing firms which are able to charter steamers and bring in entire cargoes. Such cargoes are often invoiced in distinct lots which makes possible separate release from bond as sales are made. Because of the climatic conditions, short storage of rice is the rule in Cuba, and wholesalers move their purchases as rapidly as possible. Large shipments of rice from the Orient are often billed to Hamburg for storage and reshipped from there as the demand arises. It was pointed out, however, in the section on Cuban imports that an increasing proportion of the rice imports have been coming directly from the Far East in postwar years. The rice imported from the Orient comes in double gunny bags having an average weight of about 220 pounds (100 kilos gross from Siagon and 224 pounds net from India and Siam). American rice is imported in sacks of 100 pounds net. MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS Cuba is a large market for certain meat products, particularly lard, salt pork, jerked beef (tasajo), and hams and shoulders. With the exception of jerked beef, practically all of these products are obtained from the United States. Each city in Cuba has at least one municipally owned slaughterhouse which sells directly to the retailers. In many cases the retailer buys the livestock and has it slaughtered. The meat furnished by these municipal abattoirs is insufficient, however, and foreign sources have to be relied upon for additional supplies of cured meat. The large American meat packers have their own branches in Habana and distribute directly to the retailers in that city and through agents in other centers. The smaller packers have agents in Habana, who receive a commission varying between 1 and 5 per cent and who sell chiefly to the retail trade in the capital and through subagents in other cities. Most of the meat exported from the United States to Cuba goes via the Key West-Habana ferry on the original refrigerator cars. The branches of the American packers have storage facilities in Habana, but these facilities are not large and frequent shipments are the rule. CONFECTIONERY Cuba imports about $500,000 worth of confectionery annually. The United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Spain are the principal sources of supply. In addition to European shippers, American exporters must compete with Cuban manufacturers, located chiefly in the city of Habana. The quality of the Cuban candy is, however, inferior to the imported product. Spain supplies a very popular hard candy known as "turron," which keeps well in the Cuban climate. France and the United Kingdom compete principally in bonbons. Practically all of the confectionery exported from the United States to Cuba is handled by a resident commission agent or repre sentative. These agents may cover the entire island or only a particular district. There is at present a tendency toward jobbing 3 |