Madrid/It was intuited for months that the collapse of the sugar harvest could still be greater and the worst forecasts have been fulfilled. The harvest is again the worst in history – a qualifier that has been used for years – and does not reach 150,000 tons. The real figure is unknown, since the authorities continue to hide it, but the Spanish agency EFE has made the accounts from the provincial press and concludes that they are far from the 160,000 of the last campaign.
In this contest 15 sugar centrals have participated, of which 10 have 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 precisely 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.
However, it is also known that it is not so, since on numerous occasions it has been reported that Central Melanio Hernández was the only one who managed to cover expectations, so it is completely sure that such a figure was not even reached. The unknown is how far the definitive result remained, and it could be even worse than suspected, according to the results of some plants whose accounts are clear.
This is the case of two rivers, Santiago de Cuba, which barely achieved 2,700 tons of the 20,811 planned, that is, 13%. Antonio Guiteras, in Las Tunas, was not much better and stayed at 16% of the projected, 7,200 of the 45,000 tons planned. The objective of the 15 centrals was, according to the data gathered by EFE, somewhat lower than 280,0000 tons of sugar.
This is the case of two rivers, from Santiago de Cuba, which barely achieved 2,700 tons of the 20,811 planned, that is, 13%
The Spanish agency requested an interview with some Azcuba spokesman, but has not obtained an answer, he says. Yes, he has the opinion of a former responsible for the missing ministry of the sugar industry, who has not hesitated to qualify the amount as a “disaster.” Although he does not say something to surprise anyone, the manager has asked Efe anonymity.
The volume of the obtained will mean, and this is not novel, a new year without exports of what was the star product of the island. After the bad figures that is believed to be during the War of Independence – although there are no records, historians point out that it was a catastrophe for the harvest of the end of the century -, the expansion of the sugar industry had been extraordinary, arriving in 195. working.
The subsequent campaigns, benefited by the great subsidies of the Soviet Union, gave such extraordinary returns – of more than 8 million tons – that Fidel Castro, in its apotheosis, came to promise the well -known harvest of the ten million, which never occurred. However, even in the mid -80s, 8.5 million tons of sugar were reached.
The decline, after the fall of the USSR, led to what the president called “resistance” of the industry, whose size was unsustainable for a country in the situation of the special period. The logic was to rationalize the resources, but when the storm escaped, the centrals that had not been dismantled were obsolete, which has led to a progressive reduction of the mills that work, to the point of reaching only 15, afflicted by the lack of maintenance, the blackouts and the achakes of the years. If the bad harvests are added, the lack of inputs and cane cutters, among other things, the total shipwreck is reached in which the sector is currently.
Cubb
Cuba does not have sugar to comply with its export contracts to China, but it has also not, for at least a year, to supply its population without resorting to imports. In addition, the waterfall is endless and has an impact on the elaboration of meals and drinks – traditionally with excess of sweeteners on the island – and, of course, of the rum.
At the end of May, the concern reached the United Kingdom itself, that alerted From the Reuters and the newspaper The Guardian That the harvest was feared to be less than 200,000 tons, preventing the elaboration of the beverage from the island. Two months later, it is known that they sinned from optimists.
