By ANNE-MARIE GARCIA
Associated Press Writer
updated 2:08 p.m. ET May 5, 2010
HAVANA - Cuba said Wednesday that this year's sugar harvest is the least
productive in more than a century — a scathing assessment that follows
the firing of the head of an industry that was once a symbol of the nation.
A report in the Communist Party newspaper Granma said the harvest fell
short of expectations by 850,000 tons, though it did not specify what
the goal had been.
It said there had not been "such a poor sugar campaign" since 1905. It
did not cite figures, but the Cuban census then reported 1.23 million
tons of sugar were harvested in the 1905-1906 season and 1.44 million
for 1906-1907.
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Cuba reported a harvest of just 1.5 million tons in 2008 and has not
released figures for 2009.
The island once was a world leader in sugar, annually producing 6
million to 7 million tons and the communist government once made the
annual harvest a point of revolutionary pride, regularly sending
brigades of office workers from the cities out into the countryside to
boost output.
The collapse of the Soviet Bloc combined with a continuing U.S. embargo
to erase the country's biggest guaranteed markets and low global
commercial prices undermined the industry, which also has been short on
investment.
Sugar industries elsewhere in the Caribbean also have suffered.
Cuban officials have continually tried to increase efficiency if not
output, but Monday's ouster of Sugar Minister Luis Manuel Avila
indicates they have not had the desired success.
The government said Avila had "asked for his removal, recognizing the
deficiencies in his work."
Granma said the island now has 750,000 hectares (1.9 million acres)
dedicated to sugar and 61 mills, but only 10 of the mills met production
goals.
It blamed the Sugar Ministry for "lack of control," and blasted
officials for lacking "objectivity" in planning.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36966409/ns/world_news-americas/
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