Cuba Has Another Record Negative Sugar Harvest
The figure, calculated from partial data, could be even worse, as Cuba goes from being the world’s leading producer to importer.
HAVANA TIMES – For months it was suspected that the sugar harvest’s collapse could be even greater, and the worst predictions have come true. The harvest is once again the worst in history—a label that has been used for years—and it does not even reach 150,000 tons. The exact figure is unknown, as the authorities continue to conceal it, but the Spanish news agency EFE has done the math using provincial press reports and concludes that the total is far below the 160,000 of the previous season.
In this season, 15 sugar mills participated, 10 of which disclosed their results to official media, adding up to a total of 95,584 tons. The remaining five have not revealed their production, but it is precisely known that together they had a target of 52,068 tons of sugar. That is to say, if they had met their targets, the harvest would total 147,652 tons.
However, it is also known that this did not happen, since reports have repeatedly stated that the Melanio Hernandez mill was the only one to meet expectations, making it absolutely certain that even that figure was not reached. The question is how far the final result fell—and it could be even worse than suspected, judging by the results from some mills whose numbers are known.
This is the case of the Dos Ríos mill in Santiago de Cuba, which barely achieved 2,700 tons out of the 20,811 planned—just 13%. The Antonio Guiteras mill in Las Tunas fared little better, producing 7,200 of the planned 45,000 tons—16% of the target. The combined goal of the 15 mills was, according to EFE’s compiled data, just under 280,000 tons of sugar.
The Spanish news agency requested an interview with a spokesperson for Azcuba but received no reply, it reports. However, it did obtain the opinion of a former official from the now-defunct Ministry of the Sugar Industry, who did not hesitate to describe the result as a “disaster.” Though he said nothing that would surprise anyone, the executive requested anonymity from EFE.
The volume produced will mean another year without exports of what was once the Island’s star product. After the poor figures believed to have occurred during the War of Independence, though there are no records, historians point out that it was a catastrophe for the end-of-century harvest, the expansion of the sugar industry was extraordinary, reaching 161 operating mills in 1959.
Subsequent harvests, boosted by massive Soviet subsidies, achieved such extraordinary yields—more than 8 million tons—that Fidel Castro, at the height of his power, went so far as to promise the well-known “Ten-Million-Ton Harvest,” which never came to pass. Even so, in the mid-1980s production reached 8.5 million tons of sugar.
The decline, following the fall of the USSR, led to what Castro called the “downsizing” of the industry, whose scale was unsustainable for a country in the conditions of the Special Period crisis. The logic was to rationalize resources, but when the storm had passed, the mills that had not been dismantled were obsolete. This has resulted in a gradual reduction in the number of operating mills, to the point where only 15 remain, plagued by lack of maintenance, blackouts, and the wear and tear of age. Add to that, poor harvests, a lack of supplies, and shortages of cane cutters, among other factors, and the industry has reached a state of total collapse.
Cuba does not have enough sugar to fulfill its export contracts with China, and for at least a year it has not had enough to supply its own population without resorting to imports. Moreover, the chain reaction is endless, affecting the production of food and drinks—which traditionally have an excess of sweeteners on the Island—and, of course, rum.
By late May, the concern reached the United Kingdom itself, with Reuters and The Guardian warning that the harvest was feared to be below 200,000 tons, jeopardizing the production of the Island’s flagship beverage. Two months later, it is clear they were being optimistic.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.