Cuban sugar recovery dealt big blow by Ike and Gustav
September 17th, 2008 | by admin |By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Sept 17 (Reuters) – The Cuban sugar industry’s fledglingrecovery from years of decline was dealt a huge blow by Hurricanes Ike andGustav this month, according to the most recent damage reports from theministry.
Just as the industry prepared to increase output up to 30 percent afterthis year’s 24 percent gain to 1.5 million tonnes, the storms set back theeffort that has included large investments and the sugar minister workingin the fields just about every Sunday for three years.
“One hundred and sixty industrial installations were effected, frommills to derivatives plants and major repair shops,” Vice Minister GustavoRodrigues said in a presentation on state-run television Tuesday evening.
Rodriguez said six mills were seriously damaged, including the AntonioGuiteras mill in Holguin province, where Ike first hit, Cuba’s largest witha 100,000 tonne capacity.
“Cane was also affected, with 190,000 hectares flattened and 108,000hectares flooded,” Rodriguez said.
Cuba harvested 330,000 hectares of cane during the 2008 harvest.
There are 700,000 hectares devoted to sugar cane in the country.
The harvest is still three months away and flattened cane oftenrecovers with some loss in yield, while flooded cane needs to be drainedwithin two weeks to avoid significant losses.