Havana/Almost two months after planning, the province of Granma celebrated “officially” the launch on Monday of the 2024-2025 sugar contest, although the jubilation lasted just two hours, since “technical problems arrested the machines” of grinding. So reported This Tuesday the newspaper The demandwhich assured that the situation was settled after “several hours of delivery and huge efforts” of the workers.
The article is a rosary of tropiezos. The beginning of the harvest, recounts the text, had to start last December, but could not start due to “deficiencies of lubricants and fuels” for the machinery. After several weeks to solve the “Falles and Technical Disadns”, the Central Cidel ability.
After the official start of this Monday, the provincial newspaper says in an epic tone, Macheteros brigades worked with the mechanized, transport, rise and shooting teams, “imposing on the deficiencies that the brutal American block imposes on the island.”
The beginning of the harvest had to begin last December, but could not start due to “deficiencies of lubricants and fuels” for machinery
Granma sugar should work carefully to achieve a “harvest that exceeds 19,000 tons, and thus compensate for the forecasts of the previous contest.” However, the Diaz Machado Caidio Va counterreloj, as they have planned around 17 weeks for grinding. To achieve the goal, the medium ensures, “more effort and compromise of all the factors involved in the contest” will be required.
The industry, once an economic locomotive of the island, is in free fall and the few mills that grind have innumerable ailments: Only six of the 14 planned for this campaign began production on time.
As a consequence, for the first week of January 25% of the planned and “sugar production had been ground [está] in an insufficient 21%”, according to Dionis Pérez Pérez, director of computer science, communication and analysis, of the Azcuba sugar group. In a article Posted in Granma On January 9, the official added that “this panorama is aggravated by the late starting and the non -incorporation of eight centrals, which represent 75% of the accumulated debt in the sector.”
Pérez Pérez explained that the electroenergetic situation has also delayed repair work in the mills, as well as in the cleaning centers and mechanization workshops. “This includes national factories, which provide essential parts and pieces for the operation of the sugar industry,” he said.
Pérez Pérez explained that the electroenergetic situation has also delayed repair work in the mills, as well as in the cleaning centers and mechanization workshops
In addition, he added, the lack of fuel availability has limited operational capacity and has complicated the logistics necessary to meet demand. According to the official, only 10% of the minimum financing required to carry out the harvest has been ensured, which puts the sustainability of the production process at risk.
The status of the centrals is one of the reasons why grinding is minimal. It should be remembered that, in 1959, Cuba had 161 mills that produced 5.6 million tons of sugar in private hands. The plants remained in shape during the decades of the Soviet subsidy, leaving the best sugar production data between the 70s and 80s – more than 8.5 million tons -, without reaching, yes, the fidelist utopia of “the ten million ”.
The sign of the harvest in recent years has been the debacle. For the 2022-2023 campaign, barely were achieved 350,000 tons of sugarthe worst harvest since 1898, and well below the more than half a million national consumption, not to mention the more than 400,000 tons that were exported.
