Sugar farmers and mill workers across eastern and central Cuba expect a significant increase in raw sugar production for the first time in years, despite delays caused by recent flooding that damaged infrastructure.
A tour over the past week of five provinces accountable for more than 50 percent of the crop showed cane plantations in far better condition than during similar travels over the past three years, when output nationwide averaged around 1.2 million tones of raw sugar.
In province after province farmers told Reuters that a month of dry and sunny weather combined with stiff breezes was drying out plantations flooded by Tropical Storm Noel in early November, though pockets of water remained and roads and rails were still being repaired.
"This area is low, so there is still a lot of humidity in the plantations and some areas still have water and some roads are in very bad condition," Alberto, a worker at the Cristino Naranjo sugar mill in Cacocun, said.
Alberto, who, like others interviewed, asked that his last name not be used, said farther north it had rained less and mills would begin opening by the middle of the month, with expectations Holguin's output would near 200,000 tonnes, compared with less than 100,000 tonnes the previous harvest.
Poor harvests in recent years have forced Cuba to import between 200,000 and 300,000 tonnes of low-grade white sugar annually from Colombia and Brazil. Cuba consumes a minimum 700,000 tonnes of sugar per year and 400,000 tonnes are destined for China.