New Orleans, January 9 (RHC) -– Rice farmers from the southern U.S. state of Louisiana are lobbying in Washington for the lifting of trade restrictions on Cuba.

According to the Louisiana-based KPLC TV, U.S. rice farmers say that exports to Cuba would make a big difference for growers in that region of the United States.

Farmer Brian Wild said: “It would make a tremendous difference to me. Our prices are down about 20 to 25 percent from last year. They're below our cost of production. I've heard figures as high as this market could mean as much as two billion dollars to Louisiana and to the south as a whole."

Besides, Wild says the U.S. blockade against Cuba hasn't accomplished anything, by noting that “it's not an embargo against Cuba, it's an embargo against Louisiana rice farmers.

For rice farmers in Louisiana, Cuba would be a very close, major export market that's going to increase the demand for their product, which is going to increase the price that they receive.