Cuba reports sugar production to be akin to 2010

Posted on Wednesday, 04.06.11

Cuba reports sugar production to be akin to 2010
By PETER ORSI
Associated Press

CALIMETE, Cuba -- Cuba's 2011 sugar production will be similar to or
slightly higher than last year's total, which was the worst in more than
a century, officials said Wednesday.

The December-April harvest is nearly complete and should be slightly
above forecasts, Sugar Ministry expert Osiris Quintero said. He did not
give an exact figure but said it would be in the ballpark of the 1.1
million tons produced in 2010.

"This year is undoubtedly going better," Quintero said. "It is not going
to be a harvest much greater than last year's. ... But that was a modest
harvest" because of drought.

He said Cuba's refineries hope to take in a similar amount of sugarcane
this year but process it more efficiently and produce slightly more sugar.

Cuba ousted its then-sugar minister last May as the government reported
that the 2010 harvest was the island's least productive since 1905.

According to census reports from the 1905-06 season, 1.23 million tons
of sugar were harvested that year.

Cuba used to be a world leader in sugar, annually producing 6 million to
7 million tons. The communist government 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. trade
embargo to erase the island's biggest guaranteed markets and low global
commercial prices undermined the industry, which also has been short on
investment.

Today the island has just 60 refineries, compared to 156 a decade ago.

The sugar business elsewhere in the Caribbean also has suffered in
recent years.

But rising prices in recent years have led Cuban officials to turn back
to sugar, which today trails tourism and nickel as the country's top
revenue producers.

President Raul Castro and other officials are pushing for improved
productivity, saying it is the key to boosting the sluggish Cuban economy.

Quintero led reporters Wednesday on a tour of sugarcane fields, a
growers' cooperative and a refinery in the central province of Matanzas,
where officials showed off modern combines from Brazil that strip the
cane as it is picked - avoiding the need to haul it to a special center
for cleaning.

More than 60 such machines have been deployed as part of an effert to
update and streamline the chain of production, he said.

Quintero also said Cuba is open to foreign investment in the sugar
industry, but he did not say from where or give other details.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/06/2154395/cuba-reports-sugar-production.html