Madrid/A few days before Travel to Beijingwhere he will attend, with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un, to the acts of the 80th anniversary of “The victory against Japanese aggression”, Miguel Díaz-Canel on Wednesday received a Chinese delegation that is visiting the island with the aim of exploring possible joint projects “for the recovery of Cuban sugar agroindustry.”
According to the newspaper Granmathe Cuban president He received Zhang AnmingDeputy Director of the Guangxi State State Controlled Capital Operations Group Limited.
Without explicitly referring to the debacle of the sector, which this year a new negative record beat againwith less than 150,000 tons of sugar produced-25% of the amount needed to cover national consumption-Díaz-Canel declared that “in the midst of the current economic situation it has been very difficult for the country to reverse the process of technological deterioration that has had a reflection both in the industry and in agriculture.”
In this regard, he pointed out that in the autonomous region of Guangxi, from where the state conglomerate operates and is the great sugar producer of China, “novel techniques are applied and teams, implements and supplies are developed for those productions.”
Xi Jinping “has shown enormous sensitivity towards Cuba’s problems”
Díaz-Canel also highlighted the “continuity” of this meeting to other agreements signed with China. Its president, Xi Jinping, “has shown enormous sensitivity towards the problems of Cuba and has enhanced mutual benefit projects in the economic and commercial order,” in the words of his Cuban counterpart.
Although he also did not refer to this, the Asian giant is the main engine of the new Solar parks that intend to save the enormous energy crisis that the country is experiencing.
The visit of the managers, who have been on Tuesday on the island, will run until Saturday, and includes the expedition to several sugar plants in the center of the country to “evaluate the potential of these infrastructure”.
The 2024/2025 harvest was the worst in history in Cuba, although the real figures are unknown, because the regime hides them. At the beginning of this August, the Spanish agency EFE made accounts from the provincial press and concluded that they are still below the bad zafra of 160,000 tons produced the previous year.
China was, until 2023, almost the only client who bought sugar from Cuba
15 sugar centrals participated in this contest, of which 10 contributed to the official media their results, which total a total of 95,584 tons. The remaining five have not revealed their production, but it is known that among all of them they aimed 52,068 tons of sugar. That is, in the event that they had fulfilled it, the harvest would amount to 147,652 tons.
Far from the 8.5 million tons that came to produce the island in the mid -80s, when the Soviet subsidy was handled and sugar was still considered an economic engine and its main export.
And also far from sugar production only in the Guangxi region, which ended the 2024/2025 cycle, last April, with More than five million tonswhich represents an increase of 614,000 tons compared to the previous harvest.
China became, in recent years, almost the only client who bought sugar from Cuba. It was so until 2023, that the island could not respect the agreements because I couldn’t even meet national demand. The last year was the last one in which Havana exported that product to the Asian giant, worth $ 60,592,000, but had to import from Brazil and France, for 52,163,000 dollars, to compensate for the deficit in national demand.
