US exports to Cuba topped $1 billion in 2026, but the Census does not say who bought them

US exports to Cuba have already passed $1 billion in 2026: they reached $1,096.5 million through September, according to the Census Bureau table. No full year had reached that figure since 1992, when the series begins. The previous high was 2025, at $809.6 million.

September brought in $220 million, the highest month on record and more than triple September 2025 ($66.4 million). Cuba, by contrast, sold just $0.6 million worth of goods to the United States over those nine months.

The table counts dollars by country and by month. It does not distinguish between a mipyme, as Cuba’s small private businesses are known, and a state company, nor does it show how much of the merchandise reached households. That gap is what matters now: the exception that allows fuel sales to private Cuban businesses only serves its purpose if the cargo does not end up in the networks of GAESA, the military-run conglomerate.

Washington and Havana read the same number

On October 28, before the UN General Assembly, US representative Mike Waltz used the figure as a political argument. He said there is no blockade and cited more than $876 million in exports over eight months. In the same debate, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla displayed a screen showing what, according to his government, the embargo costs.

A week later, the Census added September’s $220 million.

A consultant credits the record to mipymes; CIMEX documents complicate the picture

For consultant Oniel Díaz Castellanos, co-founder of the firm AUGE, the most plausible explanation is demand from mipymes, largely financed by remittances. He wrote this in April in an article published by Horizonte Cubano, at Columbia University. In the same piece, however, he put exports to private businesses in 2025 at $173.6 million: about 21% of the $809.6 million the Census recorded that year.

Internal circulars obtained by ADN Cuba show another part of the picture. CIMEX, GAESA’s corporation, buys imported fuel from mipymes and sets the resale price. The documents identify 21 suppliers, at least 16 of them private.

According to ADN Cuba, Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy had told Reuters on October 12 that no state company had obtained fuel contracts. CIMEX, GAESA and the ministry did not respond to that outlet.

What was inside US exports to Cuba in August

August is the latest month with a product breakdown, published by the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. Of that month’s $202.5 million, nearly $75 million was fuel, the largest item. Food and agricultural products reached $60.1 million, although from January to August they were running 3.4% below 2025. Another $31.1 million was humanitarian aid, which the Census adds to the total even though nothing was sold.

Those three figures come from different classifications and should not be added up as a breakdown of the total. They are enough, though, to rule out that private entrepreneurs paid for the entire record: the humanitarian aid, for example, was not sold to anyone.

Where the money comes from

Díaz Castellanos describes remittances as a major driver of private-sector investment. Radio station WLRN reported in October that cash remittances reached as much as $2 billion last year, and that imports now have to go through fee-charging intermediaries in third countries such as Panama and Spain. None of that shows who paid for each shipment.

Entering the fuel business takes between $500,000 and $1.4 million in cash, according to an estimate by analyst Emilio Morales that CpM reported in its analysis of GAESA and the mipymes (in Spanish). It is his estimate, not official data, and his theory about front men has not yet come with a verified list.

Washington has already closed several payment routes

Since March 4, the license exception for selling fuel to private businesses no longer covers transactions that deposit foreign funds in a Cuban bank. The Commerce Department guidance leaves third-country banks outside that suspension.

The same guidance puts the burden on the seller: the exporter is responsible for meeting the conditions, including that the product not reach prohibited entities. An importer told ADN Cuba he signed a private-use declaration that, according to the outlet, did not expressly bar reselling to CIMEX.

The OFAC alert of September 29, in force since the 30th, went further. It requires banks under US jurisdiction to block the accounts of Cuban private entrepreneurs, ends U-turn transfers and also bans indirect transactions with entities on the Cuba Restricted List.

What the October numbers will show

Those measures took effect on the last day of the record month, so September barely reflects them. The first figure that does will be October’s, which the Census release calendar sets for December 8.

In Miami, Miami-Dade County Tax Collector Dariel Fernández said on October 25 that his office is still investigating the fuel reaching CIMEX.

What we know and what is missing

• Confirmed: $1,096.5 million in US exports to Cuba over nine months and $220 million in September, according to the Census.
• Documented, without a total figure: imported fuel that CIMEX buys from mipymes.
• No public answer: how much of the total ended up in private or state hands, and where the money to pay for it came from.

Do you have documents or data on who buys or pays for these imports? Write to us at redaccion@cubanosporelmundo.com.

How we reported this story

The figures on US exports to Cuba come from the US Census Bureau trade table and from the sources linked in the text: the UN, the Commerce Department, OFAC, Horizonte Cubano, WLRN and ADN Cuba.

The photos of the AZURE on the Miami River are by Cubanos por el Mundo. For years we have used ship-tracking systems to follow vessels sailing from Miami to Cuba, which told us where to stand to photograph this one. The ship’s position after leaving Mariel was checked on MarineTraffic.

We rely on artificial intelligence tools to research, check image rights and review the text, always under the supervision of our editors, who checked every piece of data against its source.