FARGO - Much has happened in the year since Fidel Castro met with North Dakota farmers over wine and salmon at a food trade show in Havana.

The Cuban dictator's harsh crackdown on pro-democracy dissidents has chilled the already frosty relations between the United States and its communist neighbor.

But Castro's regime keeps filling its pantries with food from U.S. suppliers. The country spent $116.6 million in agricultural goods last year, ranking it as the 50th export market.

That includes more than 10,000 tons of peas, valued at more than $1 million, 42 tons of soybeans and 450,000 pounds of pasta from North Dakota. To date, North Dakota farm and food exports to Cuba total more than $1.5 million, the North Dakota Farm Bureau said.

Minnesota farmers and processors have sold $70 million of food and agricultural exports to Cuba since trade opened in November 2001, said Kurt Markham, marketing services director for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

A year ago, delegations of farmers and agribusiness leaders from North Dakota and Minnesota were among the 750 who flocked to Havana for the first U.S. food trade show since Washington imposed an economic embargo against Cuba 42 years ago.

Castro hosted the North Dakota delegation to a gourmet luncheon meeting at his protocol compound

Plans for a second food expo in January were dashed when the Bush administration refused to grant a license, arguing that "business as usual," would send the wrong message to the Castro regime.

But growers and food processors from the region continue to work to develop ties with a market located 70 miles from Florida.

"North Dakota has a heck of a lot of products that the Cubans need," said John Mittleider, vice president for public policy for the North Dakota Farm Bureau, which organized a trade delegation and the contingent that attended last year's food show.

North Dakota firms left the expo with eight contracts that largely were intended as a "foot in the door" to begin a trade relationship and to test supply channels, said Roger Johnson, North Dakota agriculture commissioner.

Some growers and processors have made subsequent deals, including a $60,000 sale this summer of semolina, a flour used to make pasta, by the state mill.