DEVELOPMENT: Cuban Sugar Harvest Underway Early

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Dec 1 1997 (IPS) - Cuban farmers are already bringing in this year’s sugar crop, in an efort to offset the affects of weather blamed on the “el Nino” phenomenon.

Cane cutting began last week, ahead of the traditional December beginning of harvest season but this will only slightly reduce the effects of climatic changes felt in Cuba, according to agricultural officials.

According to weather forecasters Cuba faces complex meteorological conditions over the next few months – including heavy rain, coastal flooding, and severe local storms.

The Sugar Industry Ministry and Divil Defence authorities are coordinating emergency measures to deal with problems in protecting the population and to safeguard Cuba’s voital economic resource.

A report last week by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) indicated that the unsettled oceanic conditions associated with the El Nino warming phenomenon will persist until March or even May of 1998. According to WMO, el Nino’s influence on the weather this year has been the greatest since 1982-83.

At the time -between January and March of 1983 – of 18 storms or winter cyclones that formed in the Gulf of Mexico, four hit Cuba with devastating force, bringing with intense rain and severe local storms.

Cuban statistics show that during the 1982-1983 sugar production season, the major Cuban producers were paralyzed for 18.5 percent of the time they should have been grinding the cane, as a result of the intense rain.

Sugar, one of Cubas main exports along with nickel, sea products, cigars and citrus fruits, has been displaced by tourism over the past few years as the countrys leading source of foreign exchange.

According to the experts, total annual sugar production, which bottomed out at 3.3 million tons, appeared to recover in 1995/96, with a total of 4.45 million tons and this year’s estimate totals 4.2 million tons.

Official figures at the end of the production cycle last June have not yet been released by the authorities. Moreover, no official predictions about the productivity of this years cycle have been made public.

“We cannot reach the levels of sugar production that we want, but we are in the position to greatly improve efficiency and decrease our production costs,” Minister of Sugar Ulises Rosales del Toro said in October.

Cuban officials and development experts agree that without a definitive take-off in the sugar industry, it is difficult for the economy to overcome the crisis financial crisis that has lasted for seven years. (FIN/IPS/da/dg/if-en/mg/mk/97)