Cubans Lament Collapse Of Its Iconic Sugar Industry

For hundreds of years, sugar was the mainstay of the Cuban economy. It was not just the island's main export but also the cornerstone of another national industry, rum.

Cuba now imports sugar to meet domestic demand — once unthinkable — and a far cry from the glory years when Cuban sugar was the envy of the Caribbean and exported around the world.

Last season, Cuba's production fell to just 350,000 tons of raw sugar, an all-time low for the country, and well below the 1.3 million tons recorded in 2019, Will Grant reported for BBC News.

Cuba now imports sugar to meet domestic demand — once unthinkable — and a far cry from the glory years when Cuban sugar was the envy of the Caribbean and exported around the world.

The slump in sugar has serious implications for other parts of the Cuban economy, including its export earnings from rum.

Cuba now produces the same volume of sugar the country produced in the middle of the 19th century. The problems have undoubtedly been worsened by the "maximum pressure" policy brought in by former US President Donald Trump, who ratcheted up the trade embargo on the island.

But the issues facing Cuban sugar are not solely the fault of the US embargo. Years of chronic mismanagement and underinvestment have also wrecked the industry.

Today, sugar receives less than 3% of state investment as Cuba backs tourism as its main economic motor instead. Martin Nizarane, a private entrepreneur, produces yogurt and ice cream in a factory outside Havana and plans to double his output.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has touted Nizarane as a model for the future. "I am not an employee of the Cuban state.

This is a non-state form of production which sells to both other non-state entities and state-owned companies," Nizarane says. "The state treats me like just another private entrepreneur with no special privileges whatsoever."