Sugar Harvest Begins in Cuba

HAVANA TIMES — The sugar harvest for the period 2012-2013 began on Wednesday at the Jesus Rabbi Mill in Matanzas, said Liobel Hernandez, an AZCUBA group specialist, to the Cuban Information Agency.

Hernandez also said that the installation of “modern technologies” will allow a 20 percent increase in the production of sugar cane and derivatives, according to projections by AZCUBA.

In Guantanamo, the Argeo Martinez Mill will begin milling operations this coming Saturday, while in December start-up will begin at another twenty-four mills, followed by twenty-one start-ups in January and finally three operations will commence in February.

It is expected that fifty mills across the country will take part in the current harvest, four more than last year.

Since the AZCUBA group began the management of the sugar sector just over a year (previously directed by the Ministry of Sugar), production has grown by more than 20 percent and eleven refineries were reopened after having been closed previously.