Cuba intends to close the spring campaign in June with 42,500 hectares of cane seeded from a total plan of 81,879, the state group Azcuba reported this Thursday.
“As of June 19, 39,143.6 hectares of cane were planted on the island, while 102,385.8 were in process, 125% of the spring plan, and 11,464.3 were plowed,” declared the director of Informatics and Communications of Azcuba, Dionis Pérez, to the official newspaper Granma.
The director mentioned as limitations the lack of tires and batteries for the teams involved in soil preparation, the delay in the arrival of the bearings for the plows and harrows, and the lack of fuel.
“Another setback was coupled with excess humidity caused by the weather that affected, fundamentally, the northern coast of Villa Clara and some eastern provinces, as well as the non-completion of investments in irrigation systems,” he added.
Pérez reiterated that 26 plants will grind in the next 2022-2023 harvest “those with the best conditions, with which the supply of sugar for the regulated family basket and the industrial needs for the use of this basic food will be guaranteed.”
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The delivery of sugar is about 2.5 kilograms per month per person through the ration card (book), in force since 1962.
One of the worst harvests
Last week, Azcuba’s representative admitted in a meeting with the press that the Island “will not be able to meet its international commitments” after one of the worst harvests in its history.
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Pérez did not provide figures to explain Azcuba’s productive situation, but the results of the 2021-2022 harvest had previously been reported in official media.
In mid-May, Azcuba assured Granma that only 53% of its initial forecast occurred.
According to the plan presented in December before the National Assembly (Parliament, unicameral), the forecast was to reach 911,000 tons. Thus, it was possible to calculate that the real harvest was around 431,000 tons, a figure not confirmed by the Cuban state sugar company.
The plan provided for allocating 500,000 tons for domestic consumption and leaving the remaining 411,000 tons for export.
Of the 35 sugar mills that participated in the harvest, which ended on May 20, only three fulfilled their production plan.
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The sugar industry, a sector classified as “strategic” for the Cuban economy, has been going through a crisis for several years with production reduced to just over a million tons.
In the 2020-2021 period, when 38 mills in the country ground cane, only 66% of the planned plan of 1.2 million tons of sugar was achieved.
Cuba had 156 operating factories in 1959, at the triumph of the Revolution, which in that year produced 5.6 million tons of sugar and later rose to 8 million in the best harvests, between 1970 and 1989.
