The first of Cuba's 13 sugar-producing provinces has met its production plan for this year, official media reported on Monday, and only one more province is expected to do the same in a season ravaged by drought and out-of-season rainfall. AZCUBA, the state-run sugar monopoly, has not given a forecast for national raw sugar output this year. Reuters estimates this at around 1.6 million tonnes, based on scattered provincial reports and sources, compared with the 1.9 million tonnes produced during the previous season.
Central Sancti Spiritus province's Communist Party newspaper, Escambray, reported on Monday its three mills had met their plan of 135,000 tonnes of raw sugar, but less than expected sugar content (yields) in the cane meant it had taken 70,000 tonnes more cane than planned. "We have had a complicated harvest due to the combination of drought and atypical rainfall," the head of the Cuban sugar workers union, Jose Antonio Perez, was quoted as stating.
"So much so that only two provinces will be able to meet their plans (Sancti Spiritus and Ciego de Avila) and around 10 of 50 mills," he said. Unseasonable rainfall in January set back harvesting of an already drought-stunted crop caused by the weather phenomena El Nino, and while the weather has improved since, cane yields never fully recovered. Only around 15 percent of Cuban sugar plantations boast irrigation and adequate drainage.