Cuba's sugar minister said there would be at least 25 percent more cane available for Cuba's 2007 harvest and more mills would open to grind the raw material, the official daily Granma reported on Friday.
Sugar Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro was quoted has stating increased use of fertiliser, herbicides and adequate rainfall meant the June estimate was up 25 percent over last year's June estimate. "This improvement is encouraging, but below sugar plantations' existing potential," he said.
Reuters estimated this year's raw sugar output at 1.2 million tonnes, compared with 1.3 million in 2005. That would put 2007 output at a minimum 1.5 million tonnes. The harvest runs from January into May. Rosales said another estimate would be made in September and again in January as milling begins.
Rosales announced 61 mills would operate in 2007, compared with 42 this year. Low sugar prices had led to the dismantling of 71 of 156 state-run mills in 2003, while another 43 mills were closed, though preserved, last year.
High sugar prices led to a decision to revitalise the industry this year. Workers have been putting in extra hours on Sundays to plant and cultivate cane, especially important in the summer months, which account for 30 percent of cane growth.
The sugar workers and cane farmers are being urged to work harder in the name of ailing President Fidel Castro, who began supervising the sector in February.
Castro, who is said to be recovering from abdominal surgery, provisionally ceded power to brother Raul Castro on July 31. Castro met with sector officials in February and again after the harvest ended, ordering funds be released to ensure adequate supplies of fertilisers, herbicides and other inputs, first to halt growing imports and then to increase sugar and ethanol exports.