EFEBy Laura Becquer
Havana
Cuba, in the difficult battle to recover its emblematic sugar industry
A man driving a horsecart passes in front of the Boris Luis Santa Coloma Sugar Factory in Madruga, Cuba, on April 29, 2021. EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa
A sign urging Cubans to produce more sugar at the entrance to the Boris Luis Santa Coloma Sugar Factory in Madruga, Cuba, on April 29, 2021. EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa
Workers chat in an office at the Boris Luis Santa Coloma Sugar Factory in Madruga, Cuba, on April 29, 2021. EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa
Workers labor in a sugar cane field on April 29, 2021, in Madruga, Cuba. EFE/Ernesto Mastrascusa
Cuba, in tough battle to recover its key sugar industry 3 minutes read
By Laura Becquer
Havana, May 4 (EFE).- The former leader in the world sugar market, Cuba is far from recovering the huge production volumes of former years in an industry considered to be the country’s economic engine but which has not managed to take off again since it collapsed during the 1990s.
Of the 156 sugar plants operating before 1959, just 56 remain and only 38 of them are processing the 2020-2021 harvest. And the 5.6 million tons of sugar collected during the year in which the Cuban Revolution triumphed, or the 7-8 million tons during the industry’s best years between 1970 and 1989, have plunged to only a little over a million tons projected for the current harvest.