Cuba warns of impact of US blockade on its sugar cane harvest

HAVANA, Cuba, May 10 (ACN) The preparation and execution period of the current harvest has been influenced by the economic-financial and energy crisis, aggravated by the tightening of the U.S. blockade and the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic, said a high-ranking executive of the AZCUBA Sugar Group.

Jose Carlos Santos Ferrer, mechanization engineer and first vice president of AZCUBA, added that the reparations were carried out in a very complex scenario, due to low levels of material insurance during the last two years.

The 2020-2021 campaign began last November 29, and the plan included milling in 38 mills, but 12 were delayed, seven of them due to humidity in the fields and five due to the late arrival of resources that did not allow their on-time enlistment, Santos Ferrer pointed out.

In a comprehensive report on the results up to April 30, he announced that 71% of the planned cane has been milled and 68% of the sugar has been produced.

The expert considered that the main causes of the delays in the plan were fuel problems, 57%; breakage of agricultural machinery and transport, 25%; industrial breakage, 7%; humidity in the fields, 9%; and damage by COVID-19, 2%.

He said that the planned industrial yield, of 9.53%, is achieved at 8.62%, influenced by the low ripening of the raw material, when a potential yield lower than expected, of one whole as average, was appreciated during November to February.

Also, 93,734 tons of animal feed, 330,943 hectoliters of alcohol, 813 cubic meters of boards and 476,332 liters of bioproducts were produced.

He mentioned that in the list of the main problems that have had an impact on the campaign is the fact of not having timely financing to carry out the imports, since only 41% was fulfilled, which affected the preparation and maintenance of the plants, machinery equipment and transportation.

The shortage of spare parts for harvesters, with more than 200 inactive, the lack of discipline in the morning harvest, the lack of fuel since January 25, which caused 18, 000 hours of stoppages, equivalent to having 33 plants inactive for 23 days, and its impact on the processing of sugar, also had an influence.

Regarding sugarcane production, as of April 30, 55,467 hectares of land have been ploughed, representing 52%, and 12,732 hectares have been planted, 67%, the integral cleaning is 67% and fertilization after cutting is 57.4%.

The delays in this direction are due to the unavailability of fuel, where from February to April it has been possible to guarantee 44% of the plan, as well as the late arrival of fertilizers, when 21% of the producers have not received this product.