MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuban Sugar Crop Worst in a Century; Brazilian Investors Could Take over Industry

President Raul Castro sacked minister Avila and no longer will “mask” officials

The current sugar harvest is Cuba’s worst since 1905, according to Communist Party daily Granma. The news comes two days after President Raúl Castro fired the minister responsible for the area amid increasing rumours that foreign investors will be invited to take over the industry.

The Sugar Ministry has failed to implement the changes needed to address chronic problems, the newspaper said. Sugar Minister Luis Manuel Ávila González was dismissed this week after roughly 16 months in the job. The official account said he asked to be relieved after acknowledging “deficiencies” in his job performance. Ávila was replaced by Deputy Minister Orlando Celso García Ramírez.

Granma said the Sugar Ministry “suffered a lack of objectivity” in its planning and projections for the current season. It also claimed that officials’ mistakes could no longer be “masked” by blaming the weather or other external variables.

Last year’s harvest was more than 850,000 tons short of the official forecast, the daily said, following a downward trend that set in after the sector enjoyed an “encouraging upturn” in 2005-2008. “It is not by chance that the harvest is closely followed, that its unfavourable results are noted and painful. Putting it back where it should be is indispensable,” Granma said, calling sugar part of Cuba’s heritage.

The Cuban sugar industry underwent a major overhaul between 2002 and 2004, when the number of refineries was slashed from 156 to 61, more than 100,000 jobs were eliminated and the amount of land planted with sugarcane shrank from 2 million hectares to around 750,000 hectares. Cuba produced 1.4 million tons of sugar in the 2008-2009 season earning more than 600 USD million from exports of the sweetener.

In pre-revolution times, the Cuban crop averaged six million tons and the country was a leading player in the world market.

There are insistent rumours that President Raúl Castro has invited Brazilian experts to consider the possibility of attracting investors from the South American largest economy and a world power in sugar cane production and bio-fuels from sugar cane.