-DATE- 19771201 -YEAR- 1977 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- INTERVIEW -AUTHOR- F.CASTRO -HEADLINE- CASTRO COMMENTS ON US HISTORICAL MARKET FOR SUGA -PLACE- CUBA -SOURCE- SANTO DOMINGO RADIO -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19771202 -TEXT- FIDEL CASTRO: U.S. 'HISTORICAL MARKET' FOR SUGAR FL020229Y Santo Domingo Radio Mil Network in Spanish 2200 GMT 1 Dec 77 FL [Text] Havana--Cuba will try to recover the U.S. sugar market if relations between both countries are resumed. The Cuban chief executive, Fidel Castro, said that the United States was a historical market for Cuban sugar. However, Castro denied that his country is planning to market its citrus produce in the United States market. In his talks with a group of Florida farmers, Castro ridiculed the fears expressed by U.S. citrus producers. In response to the fears of the U.S. citrus producers, President Fidel Castro stated: It made me laugh. It greatly amused me when I heard all that uproar about Cuba (?destroying) the Florida citrus producers, because I have never thought about the U.S. market for citrus. And he added: All of the Cuban citrus production through 1980 is already sold to the European socialist countries. Nevertheless, Fidel stressed that Cuba would try to recover the U.S. sugar market as soon as relations, which have been interrupted since the beginning of the sixties, are reestablished. -END-