Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's decision to relinquish power should not affect North Dakota's ongoing efforts to sell farm products to Cuba, Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson says.

"I don't think this is going to have a great deal of impact, at least from the vantage point that we have had in our relations with Cuba," Johnson said today during a telephone conference call from Havana.

Johnson is leading a North Dakota trade mission to Cuba this week. He said today that no sales had yet been completed. Most talks have focused on selling dry peas, which account for most of an estimated $30 million in North Dakota agricultural sales to Cuba in the last six years.

Johnson also has been trying to work out a snag that has developed in the sale of 100 tons of North Dakota seed potatoes to Cuba. U.S. officials have delayed inspection rules to use for making sure the seed potatoes are free of disease and insects, he said.

The delegation has a dozen representatives, including sellers of peas, dry beans, dried distillers' grain and potatoes.

The Cubans favor field peas because they are a cheap source of protein, Johnson said. North Dakota is the nation's leading producer of dry peas, lentils and chickpeas. Sales prospects for potatoes and dried distillers' grains, which are a byproduct of ethanol production, have some promise, he said.

The chances of selling hard red spring wheat, corn and soybeans are remote because of high prices and market volatility, Johnson said. "The market is just too high for them to be able to afford it," he said.

North Dakota is the No. 1 producer of hard red spring wheat, which is used to make bakery flour. State producers have sold some token amounts of hard red spring wheat in the past, Johnson said.

Prices for the commodity have been soaring. On Wednesday at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, hard red spring wheat for March delivery was fetching about $18 a bushel.

"With the market where it's at today, there is no point even talking about it," Johnson said. "We don't have available stocks, and they don't have available money."

Johnson has been a leader or participant in six previous trade missions to Cuba, dating back to 2002. He has met with Castro on some missions, but has not done so since Castro's brother, Raul, 76, assumed power when Fidel Castro underwent intestinal surgery in July 2006.

Fidel Castro, 81, is formally standing down as Cuba's president on Sunday.

"Raul has a very different disposition, I think, with respect to foreign trade teams (and) visitors," Johnson said. "He is not nearly as present, I think (he) is a much less hands-on director of how things are going to happen."

The United States imposed trade sanctions on Cuba in 1960, after Fidel Castro seized power. They were eased in 2000, and sales of food and medical supplies are permitted, although there are financing restrictions that crimp potential sales. Direct travel between the two countries is restricted.

Johnson has advocated lifting the sanctions and travel restrictions.

"I doubt that (the embargo) is something that's going to quickly go away, but I certainly think that we ought to have a policy of much more engagement," he said. "If a million Americans came back and forth to the island of Cuba on an annual basis … I suspect things are going to change, and change pretty dramatically."