Barely 25% of what was planned has been ground, and “sugar production is at an insufficient 21%”

14ymedio, Madrid, 10 January 2024 — The bad data for the sugar industry can only worse. Last October, at the start of the 2024-2025 harvest, the vice president of the Council of Ministers, Jorge Luis Tapia Fonseca, revealed that there would be grinding in only 15 sugar mills throughout the country, the lowest number in history, since just three years ago there were 36. This Thursday, however, the authorities said that “of the 14 planned” – and it is now one less – only six are working.
The result, therefore, is painful. Barely 25% of what was planned has been ground, and “sugar production [is] at an insufficient 21%,” Dionis Pérez Pérez, director of the state-owned Azcuba, who only had one comforting piece of data, told the official State newspaper Granma: “Ninety percent of the processes are energy efficient,” he said, which was not any use. The official pointed out that these figures have been affected not only by the “non-incorporation” of these eight mills – “which represent 75% of the accumulated debt in the sector – but also by the “late start-up.”
The efficiency is due to the fact that, despite the very poor figures, last year was worse, since five more mills are now grinding, and half the sugar was produced. The 2023-2024 harvest remains a state secret and, although all government officials who have spoken about that industry have warned that the figures were disastrous and that work must be done for the survival of the sector, the tons of the product have never been quantified.
The last harvest for which there is data is that of 2022-2023, when 350,000 tons of sugar were achieved, the worst harvest since 1898, and well below the more than half a million of national consumption
The last harvest for which there is data is that of 2022-2023, when 350,000 tons of sugar were achieved, the worst harvest since 1898, and well below the more than half a million of national consumption, not to mention the more than 400,000 tons that were exported. Now, even sugar, the Island’s star product for at least a century, must be imported. Last year, according to official data, Cuba imported sugar and derived products worth $36,576,000, surpassing exports, which reached just $11,187,000.
According to the manager of Azcuba, the condition of the plants is one of the reasons why grinding is minimal. It should be remembered that, in 1959, Cuba had 161 sugar mills that produced 5.6 million tons of sugar in that last harvest in private hands. The mills were kept in shape during the years of the Soviet subsidy, with the best sugar production data between the 70s and 80s – more than 8.5 million tons – although the Fidelist utopia of ten million tons could never be reached.
However, “the electro-energy situation has delayed the repair work in the plants, as well as in the cleaning centers and mechanization workshops. This includes national factories, which provide essential parts and pieces for the operation of the sugar industry,” Pérez Pérez said on Thursday.
In addition, only 10% of the fuel needed for the sugar industry has been assured, significantly reducing “operational capacity and complicating logistics.”
The official regretted that all this has affected the oxygen gas, which the plants also produce, “due to breakdowns in the mill and the lack of raw material.” Electricity generation did not go well either, with 36% (19,707 megawatts per hour), of which 10,358 MWh were sold to the National Electric System. Despite this, the bioelectric produces 25 MWh, which saves 3,300 tons of diesel.
The amount is not to be disregarded, in any case, given the precarious state in which the country’s electricity industry finds itself, and which in turn affects the sugar industry. This Thursday, coinciding with the passage of the cold front across Cuba, the Electric Union had predicted a deficit of 700 MW during peak hours, generating 2,200 MW compared to a demand of 2900 MW.
One of the hopes to reduce the high electricity deficits is placed in the repair of the two units of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant
One of the hopes to reduce the high electricity deficits is in the repair of the two units of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant, in Cienfuegos, which broke down at the same time. This Friday, Granma also set April and June for the synchronization of the plant, which contributes about 316 MW to the system.
José Osvaldo González Rodríguez, its general manager, explains that after the total disconnection of the National Electric System (SEN) that occurred last October, checks were carried out that determined “the need to intervene, in a profound way, in several elements of the turbine,” a very complex task that should conclude in one case this January and in the other next month.
To this have been added, with regard to unit 3, repairs on auxiliary equipment, transformers and a boiler. The first half of April, if all goes well – an exceptional situation in Cuba – the unit should be synchronized with the SEN. As for unit 4, “it already had a certain level of misalignment in the elements of the overheater and reheater, which had caused failures in the pipes.” This case is even more serious, since it requires the replacement of “the exchangers associated with this failure, i.e. secondary and primary superheaters, reheater and economizer.” There will also be maintenance on the rest of the elements that make up the unit, which should be working well in June.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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