Most centers have begun to provide some data indicating that the harvest will be bad again.
14ymedio, Havana/Madrid, 12 February 2025 — Lucía is amazed every time, like this Tuesday, when she arrives at the bodega (ration store) to pick up the module that the government donates from time to time. “I find it quite mind-blowing that another country would donate sugar to this one,” she says, incredulous. This February’s free distribution began yesterday in Havana, upon presentation of an ID card, with products donated by some “friendly nations.”
This time, the combo includes a 500-gram package of spaghetti from Turkey, a kilo of Brazilian sugar, and a can of sardines in oil from Venezuela for pregnant women, children, and those over 65. The amount depends on what authorities call “family units” and increases depending on the number of people living under the same roof.
The delivery of these modules, which has been carried out regularly since at least July 2021 and includes very basic products from all over, should make Lucía accustomed to finding the usual package of foreign sugar, but this retiree, who has experienced the best years of the harvest on the Island, continues to throw up her hands.
This time, the combo includes a 500-gram package of spaghetti from Turkey, a kilo of Brazilian sugar, and a can of sardines in oil from Venezuela.
Nothing suggests things will change in the short or medium term. The sugar industry is in irrecoverable condition, and the 2024-2025 harvest is underway without any production data from the previous year.
The last harvest for which data is available is for 2022-2023, when 350,000 tons of sugar were produced, the worst harvest since 1898 and far below national demand, estimated at at least half a million tons. The phantom figure, and this has been acknowledged, is worse than that, although by how much is unknown.
In recent days, the provincial press has been offering some data that confirms that things aren’t looking any better for this year. This Tuesday, the newspaper Escambray reported that the Tuinucú sugar mill, Melanio Hernández, “has managed to stabilize its performance,” but still has “shortfalls in its production plan of nearly 3,000 tons.”
Antonio Viamontes, director of the sugar company, indicated that 7,400 tons of raw sugar have been produced to date, only 40% of the total, due to the backlog in harvested cane. Other setbacks have been fuel shortages, machinery breakdowns, and poor worker performance, but on the positive side is the efficiency of the machinery. Furthermore, the mill is not only self-sufficient but also contributes more than 40 megawatts (MW) to the national electricity system (SEN), wages have improved, and there are four rail connections with Uruguay (at Jatibonico)—which, although it does not grind sugarcane, provides 60% of the sugarcane—to offset the inconveniences.
The pressure is even greater at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes sugar mill, the only one in Camagüey that will produce sugar and whose main purpose is to produce for the ’family basket’. The goal is to obtain 23,500 tons, grinding 250 tons of cane daily for 115 days. The shortage of personnel is felt at this mill, where half of the workers are new. In exchange, it will benefit from the experience of other companies that will not harvest this year.
In this case, the plant is also self-sufficient, but it barely contributes 1 MW to the SEN. “There is no other option but to comply, and the workers are clear about the role they play in guaranteeing those 23,500 tons, in a province with a sugarcane tradition, but which in recent years has been far below its real potential and far from fulfilling plans,”the State newspaper Granma warned on Tuesday .
“There is no other option but to comply, and the workers are clear about their role in guaranteeing those 23,500 tons, in a province with a sugar-producing tradition, but which in recent years has fallen far short of its potential.”
In Santiago de Cuba, two mills will grind sugar, although only one of them will be used for the ’family basket’. These are the Dos Ríos mill, located in Palma Soriano and taking over from América Libre in Contramaestre, and the Julio Antonio Mella mill, in the municipality of Mella. It’s worth remembering that only 14 mills will harvest this year, if all of them succeed. Their task is to produce 20,000 tons of sugar, but it’s already behind schedule considering it started last weekend.
“The factory started without incident. The parameters designed in the different areas are being checked. Between Monday and Tuesday, it should deliver the first tons of sugar for the basket and for social consumption,” said its manager, Osvaldo Arias. The goal, says Sierra Maestra, is “to put the non-compliances in the past and make the rational and efficient use of human, material, and financial resources a pillar of its management.”
The other Santiago sugar mill participating in the competition is Paquito Rosales, in San Luis, but in its case it is called upon to produce molasses, although, the provincial newspaper highlights, “it will not give up on producing sugar, if possible, following the extraordinary repair process it underwent, which yielded notable results.”
In Las Tunas, where the Antonio Guiteras sugar mill is operating—from which much more is expected than from the thermoelectric plant of the same name—130 tons of good-quality sugar were produced this Sunday, to the delight of authorities, who reported it to Periódico 26.
Carlos Górgora Serrano, head of production at the mill, celebrated that this had been the best day of the current season and considered it evidence of the mill’s improvement, a relief considering it has the largest order for this year, exceeding 40,000 tons, which, together with Majibacoa, should total 61,000 tons.
To put the figures into perspective, in 2015 Guiteras alone managed to produce 100,000 tons of sugar, an amount that pales in comparison to the 218,000 tons of 1983, a national record for the harvest, never surpassed.
The industry has five mills in operation, and Górgora stated that it is necessary to add one more, since the current number “does not allow us to meet expectations.”
To put the figures into perspective, in 2015, Guiteras alone managed to produce 100,000 tons of sugar, a figure that pales in comparison to the 218,000 tons achieved in 1983, a national record for the harvest never surpassed.
In a meeting held this Tuesday , Eduardo Walter Cueli, coordinator of Programs and Objectives for the provincial government, attributed the majority of the public accounts deficit to the Las Tunas sugar mills: 1.8 billion of the total 2.6 billion left by 35 state entities. The official emphasized that in 2024, “more than 50,000 tons of sugar production was lost, which directly affected social consumption and the local food industry, as well as the sugar derivatives supply chain.”
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