The Azcuba Business Group confirmed that there is currently a deficit of 95,000 tons in sugar production with respect to the plan of the current harvestaccording to official media on the island.
The engineer Ángel Luis Ríos Riquenes, general director of Productive Chain of that entity, said to the official newspaper Granma that the production of 400,000 tons for domestic consumption was planned, and that it is possible to fulfill the commitment despite the difficulties.
The manager stated as reasons for the imbalance electrical failures and power plant breakages, as well as the lack of fuel and the non-availability of parts for means of transport and cane cutting, tires, batteries and other important resources, which linked to the “financing difficulties and the validity of the economic stranglehold measures of the United States Government.”
Ríos Riquenes recognized that in order to comply with what was planned, the harvest “will take a little longer than expected… some mills have the end of the harvest scheduled for April. Others, in the month of May », a possibility that he considered a risk due to possible weather effects
According to reports, in the current harvest, 23 mills are grinding and although up to now the conditions have been favorable and the yields are met, “the full potential of the cane is not extracted.”
The sugar harvest begins in Cuba, with less than half a million tons forecast
The official indicated that the delays in sugar production are concentrated in seven large plants deployed throughout the island, and that measures are taken to counteract the problem. He pointed to Urbano Noris, from Holguín, and Antonio Guiteras from Las Tunas as the most problematic.
He also explained that like many branches of the economy, the sugar industry It suffers from a personnel deficit due to various causes, mainly the aging of the labor force and migration.
He also pointed out the existing high inflation and its effect on workers, who due to production problems cannot receive “decent” wages and choose to leave. In turn, he said, the lack of qualified force has a negative impact, especially middle managers, which has caused a lack of discipline and rigor.
Another of the obstacles to the fulfillment of the production plan is the theft of sugar in the mills. “The criminals have violated fences and warehouses, they have threatened the custodians and workers of the power plants, as well as the families of those who oppose them. Its damage has been quite representative in some plants”, he specified to Granma.
The head of Azcuba’s production assured that a flexibility strategy is applied so that some mills not included in the milling process use part of their industry for the production of molasses, to later convert it into alcohols and spirits.
“There is a group of mills that employ workers in this way, obtain considerable income and make tax contributions to benefit the economy,” he added.
