June 29, 2006

Azucah!

Once the world's foremost provider of sugar, Cuba's latest sugar "harvest" mediocre at best:

Cuba's sugar industry won't make harvest goals

By Frances Robles

McClatchy Newspapers

Cuba's struggling sugar industry won't make its harvest goals this year, the government acknowledged this week, saying that inefficient mills and a late start proved to be obstacles difficult to overcome.

"The recently finished harvest demonstrated that hard work and final results don't always correspond," the Communist Party daily Granma reported Tuesday.

In February, when sugar prices rose to 17 U.S. cents a pound, Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced his country - after having closed sugar mills and furloughed workers in 2002 - would try to increase its production. The government announced it would shoot for a 3 million ton harvest.

But experts say it is now producing about 1.3 million tons a year - less than a fifth of what was grown in the 1950s. Government officials also recently announced plans to increase ethanol production fivefold - a lofty goal that requires a stepped up harvest.

The nation that four years ago had 156 operating mills now has just 42, and says 28 of them began the season late. Of 22 low-production mills, eight couldn't grind the amount of sugar cane that had been projected and two were shut down due to "reiterated inefficiency and high per-ton cost," Granma reported.

Even with rationing, Cuba now has to import sugar for it's own consumption.

Such progress with that revolution, eh?

Hat tip: Cherokee

Posted by Val Prieto at June 29, 2006 12:25 PM



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Comments

“The recently finished harvest demonstrated that hard work and final results don’t always correspond,” the Communist Party daily Granma reported Tuesday.

What Granma REALLY meant to say was….


“The recently finished harvest demonstrated that SLAVE work and final results don’t always correspond,” the Communist Party daily Granma reported Tuesday.

Posted by: Firefly [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 29, 2006 02:12 PM

val hey wlecome back.

this is OT!

it's my bother's birthday and he wanted me to get him a chuchu valdez cd; (he'd heard a cut on the radio and it sounded VG).

in my research, i found that chuchu has been back to cuba and entertained there.

this disturbed me and my bro' - it made it seem like chuchu is NOT an anti-fidel ex-pat.

is this true?

should i avoid buying his stuff?

if is housld avoid chuchuy, then is there some other great classical cuban jazz pianist or combo-group whhi/which is anti-fidel and who i'd LOVE to support by buying their cds?

let me know if you can.

all the best!

Posted by: reliapundit - the astute blogger [TypeKey Profile Page] at June 29, 2006 08:26 PM

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