There are countries that are dependent on exports, and Cuba is one of them. The sugar sector, once the pride of the country and the engine of the economy, is today minimal and has little hope of recovery. Sugar is vital to Cuba not only to meet domestic demand and exports, but also to fuel a crucial industry: rum.

There was a popular saying: “There is no country without sugar”, and this has unfortunately been confirmed in recent years.

Soviet Union. Südzuicker is a leading sugar production company. It is a German giant with nearly 6,500 employees and a turnover of 4.2 billion euros in 2023. The figure that interests us is the 4.1 million tons of production produced last year. Cuba produced 8 million tons of sugar in 1990. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the good times came to an end.

Production was good, but exports were not that high due to the US blockade, among other factors, and the industry slowly declined. Between 2002 and 2004, Cuba reduced the number of refineries from 156 to 61; this led to the elimination of more than 100,000 jobs and also reduced the area under cultivation from two million hectares to just 750,000 hectares. Total production in 2010 was 1.1 million tons.

Epidemics and quarantines. After disastrous years, President Raúl Castro decided to give up the Ministry of Sugar (MINAZ) so that a new business group, AZCUBA, could control the production of both sugar cane and derivative products. The aim was to modernize the production process and reorganize the crisis-ridden industry, but it seemed that the cure was worse than the disease. The pandemic has hit the sugar industry hard, but the blockade the US continues to impose on the country is causing a bleak economic outlook.

Miguel Guzmán, from the Yumurí sugar cooperative, complains to the BBC not only about his salary and that he can buy almost nothing due to skyrocketing inflation, but also about the lack of supplies. “There are not enough trucks and fuel shortages (due to prices rising fivefold since March 1) sometimes mean we are only days away from being able to work.” This definitely delays the entire process and is something that hinders production (in addition to other factors).

Last disastrous harvest. Some recovery was seen in 2019, with production of 1.3 million tonnes, but it began to decline from that point on. 2020 was a lost year due to the pandemic, but 2021 was not much better either: 800,000 tonnes, the lowest figure since 1908 and 10% of the eight million tonnes in the 90s.

Things were no better last year with production of just 350,000 tonnes. Dionis Pérez is the Communications Director of the state company AZCUBA and is aware that there are almost no refineries currently operating. Workers complain about old materials and rusty tools that cannot guarantee good production. Juan Triana from the Center for Research on the Cuban Economy says, “This is a disaster. Today, Cuba’s sugar industry is almost non-existent.”

sugar import. Traditionally Cuba consumed 700,000 tons of it and exported the rest, but with current production the picture has changed radically. Juan points out that they produce the same amount of sugar as they did in the mid-19th century, when sugar was not an industry, and puts some of the blame on Trump’s aggressive trade policies, which Biden has not repealed. But these are not just problems caused by the US government.

In April this year, as the harvest was drawing to a close, they had only produced 71% of the planned 412,000 tonnes, meaning just under 300,000 tonnes. We’ll see where the figure stays in the current harvest, but voices like Cuban economist Omar Everleny confirm: “We will have to import and of course less sugar means there will be less alcohol for various industries and of course less rum.”

And the truth is that this fatigue in Cuba’s sugar production is turning into a giant snowball. Without sugar, domestic demand cannot be met and exports cannot be met to make money. Without sugar, our other national pride, rum, cannot be produced. Therefore, as the popular saying goes, if there is no sugar, there is no country.

Pictures | Orman and Kim Starr, Rufino Uribe

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