Cuba, formerly one of the most powerful sugar economies in the world, has the potential to boost its sugar output post-Castro but will require substantial investment, a senior sugar analyst said on Tuesday.
"Cuba was an 8-million-tonne sugar producer and is now (producing roughly) 1.2-1.3 million tonnes a year," Tom McNeill, senior partner of Lausanne-based consultancy Kingsman SA, told a sugar conference. "With some modernisation and capital investment undertaken, the sugar and ethanol sectors (in Cuba) could do a lot better than that," he said. "It would require considerable investment from outside or an internal investment of funds."
Carlos Murilo Barros de Mello, commercial director of Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Cosan, said the Caribbean island had potential to achieve strong sugar production yields. Kingsman SA and Al Khaleej Sugar were organisers of the Dubai 2008 sugar conference, which wrapped up on Tuesday.