Cuba said on Friday the 2003/2004-sugar crop weighed in at 2.52 million tonnes of raw sugar and was more efficient than last year's disastrous harvest, which followed a radical downsizing of the industry.
"The sugar harvest has ended with 324,000 tonnes more than the previous and higher levels of efficiency in almost all areas," the official daily Grandma said, reporting on a speech by Vice President Carlos Lager after the last of 80 mills shut down.
The 2002/2003 sugar crop amounted to 2.2 million tonnes, making it the smallest in 70 years.
The world's fourth-largest sugar exporting country sells abroad all but 700,000 tonnes of the crop.
The Communist-run Caribbean country shuttered 71 of 156 mills and relegated 60 percent of sugar lands to other uses in a 2002 restructuring.