U.S. Exports to Cuba Hit a Record $202.5 Million in August as Fuel Sold to Private Firms Makes America the Island's Top Supplier

American companies sold more goods to Cuba in August 2026 than in any month in Census Bureau records that go back to 1992, and fuel, not food, led the way. U.S. Census Bureau trade data show exports to the island reached $202.5 million in August, up from $148.9 million in July, pushing the total for the first eight months of the year to $876.5 million. That eight-month figure is already larger than any full year on record, including 2025's $809.6 million.

The surge is driven by diesel and gasoline shipped to Cuba's small private businesses under a carve-out the Trump administration created in February, even as it blocks oil from reaching the Cuban government. According to the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, U.S. fuel exports to Cuba totaled $74.8 million in August and $231.7 million from January through August, a run the Miami Herald reported this week has made the United States Cuba's main fuel supplier. For South Florida, home to the exporters, the ports and the largest Cuban exile community in the country, the numbers sit at the center of a policy that is meant to squeeze Havana while keeping the island's private sector alive.

What the trade data show

The Census Bureau's country table for Cuba shows a steady climb all year. Monthly exports roughly tripled between February and August, according to the federal figures.

For comparison, the same Census series shows U.S. exports to Cuba of $585.4 million for all of 2024 and $404.0 million for all of 2023. The trade council has estimated that total U.S. exports to Cuba could pass $1 billion in 2026.

In August, fuel sales outpaced food. The Herald, citing the council's figures, reported that food and agricultural exports totaled $60.1 million that month, compared with $74.8 million in fuels. The council separately reported $23.8 million in unleaded gasoline and $3.7 million in motorcycles among August's exports, and the Herald reported shipments of solar cell modules, gasoline vehicles and lithium-ion batteries as Cuba's private businesses buy equipment to cope with a failing power grid.

How the fuel carve-out works

The embargo has never barred the sale of food, medicine and other basic goods to Cuba, and for years the Cuban government bought staples like chicken, rice and soybeans from American suppliers. What changed in 2026 was oil. After the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January, shipments from Venezuela stopped, and the administration pressed Mexico to halt its deliveries, leaving the Cuban state without its traditional suppliers.

In February, the administration authorized sales of U.S. fuel to Cuba's private sector. Commerce Department guidance allowed fuel exports for private business activity without a separate government license, and both Commerce and the Treasury Department said sellers cannot supply the Cuban government, the military or hotels run by the military. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that licenses would be revoked if fuel were diverted to the regime, according to reporting at the time.

Most of the fuel moves in ISO tanks, large steel containers that ride on ordinary container ships, rather than on tankers. WLRN reported that Vanguard Energy, based in Coral Gables, is one of the companies licensed to export fuel to Cuba under the policy, and that diesel prices in Cuba have dropped from more than $8 a liter to less than $3 in recent months as private sellers fill the gap.

Questions about where the fuel ends up

Not everyone accepts the numbers at face value. The Herald reported that the U.S. Department of Energy recently recorded a record 3.2 million barrels of petroleum products exported to Cuba in July, a volume that does not line up with the dollar values the trade council reported or with how the fuel is moved. Jorge Piñón, an energy researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Herald he was skeptical of the data and noted that only CUPET, the sanctioned state oil company, has the storage capacity to handle that much fuel in a single month.

Trade statistics do not identify the buyers or who ultimately burns each shipment. The Herald reported that some private sellers have signed deals with CUPET and CIMEX, two sanctioned state companies, to lease gas stations where they sell the imported fuel, and that independent Cuban media have suggested some of it may end up in government vehicles. Cuba's minister of energy and mines, Vicente de la O Levy, told Reuters that the government does not benefit from the U.S. sales and that the island still faces the same blackouts and generation shortfalls.

The Florida enforcement front

The record trade figures land days after federal agents in Miami announced one of the largest fuel seizures tied to the policy. On Oct. 7, Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection and the Commerce Department said they had seized about $2.8 million in biodiesel, more than 600,000 gallons, bound for ENETEC, a Cuban state wholesale firm the United States barred from receiving such imports this year. WLRN reported that almost 500,000 gallons were seized at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, with the rest at Port Houston.

José R. Figueroa, the HSI special agent in charge in Miami, described the scheme as deliberate and coordinated, according to WLRN. Federal officials did not name the U.S. companies or individuals involved, and no charges have been announced. A person linked to one of the companies selling the fuel told the Herald that ENETEC acts as an intermediary that does not take ownership of shipments and that the company's transactions were fully licensed. The Cuban energy minister told Reuters there was no contract of any kind with ENETEC.

At sea, the Coast Guard has said it boarded the vessel Grace in the Caribbean on Sept. 5 and escorted it to Progreso, Mexico, after finding fuel bound for Cuba hidden in ballast tanks and containers, and that it had earlier detained another vessel, the Jaira Provider. Cuba's deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, has called the interdictions illegal.

Why it matters in South Florida

The policy splits Florida's Cuban American community. The administration says the sanctions are needed to break the government's monopoly on fuel, and the private-sector exception is meant to keep food moving and small businesses running. Critics argue the fuel squeeze, layered on an embargo nearly seven decades old, has pushed the island toward collapse, with chronic blackouts and garbage piling up in Havana's streets, according to WLRN. Negotiations between Havana and Rubio, the administration's point man on Cuba, appear stalled, and WLRN reported that more conservative exiles in Miami have grown impatient.

For families who send money and goods to relatives on the island, the shift toward private business has changed what can be bought there. For Florida exporters and shippers, the fuel trade has become a growing line of business that also carries legal risk, as the Port Everglades seizure showed. Vehicle sales are part of the picture too: the trade council says exports of vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles and parts to Cuba have exceeded $333 million since 2022, including $106.7 million so far in 2026, according to the Herald.

What's next

The Census Bureau will publish September trade data in early November, which will show whether the August jump holds. The HSI investigation into the ENETEC shipments remains open, and federal agencies have said they will keep enforcing the ban on fuel sales to Cuban state entities while allowing licensed sales to private firms. Whether the administration tightens the private-sector exception, or keeps it as a pressure valve while talks with Havana stall, is the decision South Florida's exporters and exile leaders will be watching most closely.