the collapse of the sugar industry

There are countries that depend on their exports, and Cuba is one of them. What was once the pride of the country and the engine of the economy, today is at a minimum and with little hope of recovery on the part of the sugar sectors. Sugar is vital for Cuba not only to satisfy internal demand and export, but to feed another very important industry: rum.

There was a popular phrase that said “without sugar, there is no country”, and it is something that sadly has been true in recent years.

The sovietic Union. Südzuicker is the leading sugar production company. It is a German giant that has almost 6,500 employees and has a turnover of 4.2 billion euros in 2023. The figure that interests us is the production of 4.1 million tons produced last year. Well, Cuba produced eight million tons of sugar in 1990. However, the good days ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Production was good, but exports were not as high due, among other things, to the United States blockade, and little by little the industry declined. Between 2002 and 2004, Cuba reduced the number of refineries from 156 to 61, which led to the elimination of more than 100,000 jobs and, in addition, reduced the cultivation area from a spectacular two million hectares to just 750,000 hectares. In 2010, total production was 1.1 million tons.

Pandemic and lockdowns. After disastrous years, President Raúl Castro decided to dispense with the Ministry of Sugar -MINAZ- so that a new business group, AZCUBA, could control the production of both cane and derived products. The intention was to modernize the production process and reorganize a sector in crisis, but it seems that the cure was worse than the disease. The pandemic hit the sugar industry hard, but the blockade that the United States continues to impose on the country is what is causing a dismal economic outlook.

Miguel Guzmán, from the Yumurí sugar cooperative, not only complains about his salary to the BBC, stating that he cannot buy almost anything due to skyrocketing inflation, but also about the lack of material. “There are not enough trucks and fuel shortages (due to prices five times higher since March 1) mean it is sometimes several days before we can work.” This absolutely delays the entire process and is something that (added to other factors) is hindering production.

Last disastrous harvest. Some recovery was seen in 2019, with production of 1.3 million tonnes, but it has gone downhill from there. 2020 was a lost year due to the pandemic, but 2021 was not much better: 800,000 tons, the lowest figure since 1908 and 10% of the eight million tons of the 90s.

Things were no better last year, with production of just 350,000 tons. Dionis Pérez is the Director of Communication of the state company AZCUBA and recognizes that there are hardly any refineries operating at this time. Workers complain about obsolete materials and rusty tools that cannot guarantee good production. For his part, Juan Triana, from the Center for Studies of the Cuban Economy, affirms that “it is a disaster. Today Cuba’s sugar industry almost does not exist.”

Importing sugar. Traditionally, Cuba consumed 700,000 tons and exported the rest, but with current production, the picture has changed radically. Juan points out that they are producing the same amount of sugar as they did in the mid-19th century, when it was not an industry as such, and places part of the blame on Trump’s aggressive trade policies that Biden did not repeal. However, these are not just problems caused by the US government.

In April of this year, and with a harvest to finish, they had only produced 71% of the planned 412,000 tons, which means just under 300,000 tons. We will see where the figure remains in the current harvest, but voices like Omar Everleny, a Cuban economist, affirm that “we will have to import and, of course, less sugar means that there will be less alcohol for various industries and, of course, less rum.”

And the thing is, this fatigue in Cuban sugar production is an immense snowball. If there is no sugar, internal demand cannot be satisfied, but neither can exporting to get money. If there is no sugar, the other national pride, rum, cannot be manufactured. Therefore, and as the popular phrase said, if there is no sugar, there is no country.

Images | Forest & Kim Starr, Rufino Uribe

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