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In addition to exports of these goods, remittance-recipient households alsodemand and receive U.S. goods. The values and information transmittedby immigrants to relatives translates into imports.Purchasing nostalgic goods is a way of maintaining cultural traditions fromthe home country, which generates revenue. In the comparative surveycarried out by the author, Latinos were asked whether they buy productsfrom home. The large majority answered positively. Only Cubans offered alow response rate, due to the fact that they travel less, have much less contactwith Cuban institutions, and the U.S. embargo hampers the acquisition ofhome-country goods. However, more than 70 percent of other Latinosreported that they bought goods from their country of origin.The magnitude of these dynamics has macroeconomic effects. Accordingto the Ministry of Economy of El Salvador (Batres-Marquez 2001), theseproducts are estimated to represent at least 10 percent or $450 millionof total exports from El Salvador to the United States. Salvadoran foodssuch as tortilla flour, red beans, loroco, semita, cheese, and horchata areimportant exports (Batres-Marquez et al. 2001). The Batres-Marquez studyand other experiences encouraged the government to seek to bring theseitems into the trading agenda during negotiations on the proposed CentralAmerican Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). In fact, El Salvador was theonly government with an agenda that explicitly included its ethnic market.Exports to the United States of El Salvadoran beer ballooned from $1million to $3.5 million between 1999 and October 2001 (USTR 2002).Many home-country producers have established businesses in the UnitedStates to cater to the migrant community.U.S. imports of Guyanese goods in the past five years reflect the positiveand consistent relationship that exists between the two countries. Guyanese-Americans show a great demand for goods such as rum, fish, and tea; profitsfrom such products represent an important share of total exports. Importsof spices, for example, which more than 60 percent of immigrants reportedbuying from Guyana, have grown substantially in the past five years, fromless than $1,000 to $35,000 (Orozco 2004b).Healthy demand for nostalgic goods has induced migrants to invest in homecountrymanufactures of foodstuffs such as cheese, fruits, and vegetables.Migrants residing in the United States have set up businesses back in theirhome countries to establish stores of various kinds. An example is RoosFoods, Inc., a food manufacturer that produces and sells processed milkproducts in Central America and to Central Americans and Mexicans livingin the United States. Roos operates in the United States but has franchises325