Cancun, Mexico ? Long a forbidden fruit, U.S. farm exports to Cuba are ballooning into a growth industry for rural America, U.S. executives and Cuban officials said Monday.

U.S. companies signed contracts worth more than $250 million with Cuba since the U.S. Congress began allowing food and agricultural exports in late 2001. Of that total, goods worth $210 million have been delivered and paid for.

And total shipments to the communist-controlled island could reach $1 billion within several years despite ongoing restrictions from the 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo.

Scores of U.S. executives, farmers, ranchers and government officials met with Cuban officials at the second annual U.S.-Cuba Business Conference in this Mexican resort town. The meeting showed how eager many U.S. exporters are to end the longstanding trade embargo entirely.

Cuba ranks a 45th place worldwide when it comes to gobbling up U.S. farm goods. But with the demise of the embargo on food, Cuban officials said U.S. producers could quickly increase their sales.

Eventually, the United States could account for well more than half of Cuba’s food imports.