Cuba says sugar cane damaged across country

Cuba says sugar cane damaged across country
UPDATE - 1
Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:01am EDT
By Marc Frank

HAVANA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Hurricane Ike flattened 156,000 hectares of
Cuban sugar cane and flooded more when it churned along the island for
two days this week, state-run radio reported on Friday.

Cuba harvested 330,000 hectares of cane during the 2008 harvest,
producing almost 1.5 million tonnes of raw sugar.

There are 700,000 hectares devoted to sugar cane in the country.

The president of the Cuban sugar technicians said the preliminary
figures would no doubt increase as workers gained access to plantations
where roads were washed out.

"The data is still preliminary and is going to increase ... I saw today
a figure of 15,000 hectares flooded," Tirso Saenz told Radio Progresso.

Saenz said he was more worried about the flooded cane than that which
was flattened, but that both situations were serious.

Top sugar reporter Juan Varela in his weekly radio program on Thursday
said there was extensive damage to infrastructure.

Varela said at least 700 kilometers of plantation roads were washed out
and 14 rail and highway bridges linking plantations to mills.

Earlier reports had 100,000 pieces of roofing blown off sugar industry
mills and other installations.

The ministry in July said the 2009 crop would increase by 25 percent to
30 percent over 2008.

Cuba consumes a minimum 700,000 tonnes of sugar per year, and 400,000
tonnes are destined for China. (Editing by John Picinich)

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN12109720080912?sp=true