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Baxter, and other crazy Communists, socialists, and Progressives
are often holding up their ideal of Cuba.
"But they are all so equal down there!"
Yeah, except for the lucky governmental ruling few,
yeah, they are all pretty equal and very poor and miserable.

Now they can not even run their sugar industry or be able to
let the common man afford sugar!

from
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68935247

Cuba laments collapse of iconic sugar industry
17 May 2024

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Will Grant
Cuba correspondent, BBC News
BBC PelotonBBC
For hundreds of years, sugar was the mainstay of the Cuban economy
The men of the Yumuri sugar co-operative in Cuba have worked the cane
fields around the city of Cienfuegos since they were old enough to wield
a machete.

Cutting cane is all Miguel Guzmán has ever known. He comes from a family
of farm hands and started the tough, thankless work as a teenager.

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.

Older Cubans remember when the island was essentially built on the backs
of families like Mr Guzmán's.

Today, though, he readily admits he has never seen the sugar industry as
broken and depressed as it is now - not even when the Soviet Union's
lucrative sugar quotas dried up after the Cold War.

Spiralling inflation, shortages of basic goods and the decades-long US
economic embargo have made for a dire economic outlook across the board
in Cuba. But things are particularly bleak in the sugar trade.

"There's not enough trucks and the fuel shortages mean sometimes several
days pass before we can work," says Miguel, waiting in a tiny patch of
shade for the Soviet-era lorries to arrive.

The lost hours of harvest as men and machinery lie idle have acutely
hurt production levels.

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

Miguel Guzman
Miguel Guzmán says his wages barely buy anything any more
Miguel is one of the fastest cutters in his team - or pelotón -
recognised by his bosses as among the most efficient in the country. Yet
he says he receives no financial incentive for greater production beyond
his love of the trade.

"My wages barely buy anything any more," he says with no hint of
exaggeration over the worsening inflation in the country. "But what can
we do? Cuba needs the sugar."

It certainly does: 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.

Inside Ciudad Caracas, a 19th-Century sugar mill near Cienfuegos, the
air is thick with the overpowering smell of molasses.

As obsolete, rusting cogs grind tonnes of sugarcane into pulp and juice,
the workers tell me it is one of just two dozen working sugar mills in Cuba.

"That's four more than originally planned for this season, thanks to the
hard work and effort of the workers," says Dionis Pérez, communications director of the state-run sugar company, Azcuba. "But the other 29 are
at a standstill," he acknowledges.

"It's a disaster. Today the sugar industry in Cuba almost doesn't
exist," says Juan Triana of the Centre for Studies of the Cuban Economy
in Havana.

Inside the factory
Ciudad Caracas is just one of just two dozen working sugar mills in Cuba
The slump in sugar has serious implications for other parts of the Cuban economy, he argues, including on its export earnings from rum. "We're
producing the same quantity of sugar Cuba 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. His
administration ratcheted up the trade embargo on the island, a measure
later extended by President Joe Biden.

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 once-thriving industry. Today, sugar receives less than 3% of state
investment as the Cuban government backs tourism as its main economic
motor instead.

One man who can still get his hands on enough sugar is Martin Nizarane.
Part of a new breed of Cuban private entrepreneurs, his company Clamanta produces yoghurt and ice cream in a factory outside Havana.

As Mr Nizarane shows me sacks of sugar imported in bulk from Colombia,
he says he hopes to double production soon.

The business has been hailed by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel as a
model for the future.

That praise from the top, to many, amounts to a paradigm shift.

It may still be considered a dirty word by the Cuban state but this is capitalism pure and simple, even if Martin Nizarane displays his
revolutionary credentials by adorning his office with photographs of him hugging the late revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro.

Martin Nizarane
Martin Nizarane says he is not given any special privileges whatsoever
I put it to him that only people with close ties to the Cuban Communist
Party can own a private business as sophisticated as his.

He was quick to deny it.

"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," he retorts.

"The state treats me like just another private entrepreneur with no
special privileges whatsoever."

Sugar's demise is just one part of Cuba's faltering economy.

On 1 March, amid growing inflation, the government imposed a five-fold
price increase on subsidised fuel at the petrol pumps.

It was a difficult but overdue decision, officials said, arguing the
government could no longer afford such high subsidies on fuel.

As he queued to fill up his tank on the day the new prices came into
force, Manuel Domínguez said he was not convinced.

All he knows is that the measure is hurting drivers like him, and that
Cubans are suffering now more than he can ever recall.

"There's no relationship between what we earn and the prices we see -
whether that's fuel or food in the shops or anything else."

"There needs to be a correlation between our wages and what things cost because, right now, for the average Cuban, fuel is simply unaffordable."

Getty Images A vehicle fuels up at a gas station in Matanzas, CubaGetty
Images
Following a rise in petrol prices, many Cubans are struggling to afford fuel
A few days later, economy and planning minister Alejandro Gil Fernández
was arrested for alleged corruption. Some think he has been made a
scapegoat for the state of the Cuban economy.

Either way, it was an extraordinary - and very public - fall from grace.
But most think it will take much more than one ministerial head to roll
to pull Cuba from its economic woes.

Back in the sugarcane fields of Cienfuegos, the cutters carry out their gruelling work with little optimism.

Invariably, when talking about the sugar industry in Cuba, someone will
quote the island's famous refrain: "Without sugar, there's no country."

For Cuban economist Juan Triana that idea is being tested to its limit.

A quintessential part of the national identity - part of the island's
very DNA - is being eroded before Cubans' eyes.

"For more than maybe 150 years, the industry of the sugarcane was both
the main export income and the locomotive for the rest of the economy.
That's what we've lost."

Cubans stage rare protest over power blackouts
Cuba asks UN for help as food shortages worsen
Fuel in Cuba to become five times more expensive
Cuba
Havana
Sugar

also, from https://en.cibercuba.com/noticias/2024-12-02-u1-e199370-s27061-nid293080-escasez-azucar-cuba-cuanto-cuesta-tiendas-online

Sugar shortage in Cuba: How much does it cost in online stores?
The scarcity of sugar in Cuba has driven up prices on online platforms. State-run stores have no supply, and in the informal market, prices
exceed 500 CUP.

Current Affairs
CiberCuba Editorial Team

02/12/2024 - 1:09pm (GMT-5) |

CargandoAzúcar a la venta en Cuba © Cuballama y Supermarket23
Sugar for sale in Cuba.Photo © Cuballama and Supermarket23

The shortage of sugar in Cuba has reached critical levels, and its price
has skyrocketed in the few places where it is still possible to find it.

While in the country, a pound of sugar may cost around 550 Cuban pesos
(CUP), on online platforms aimed at the Cuban market, prices are higher, ranging from 2 to 4 dollars, depending on the supplier.

At Supermarket 23, one of the most popular platforms for supplying Cuba
from abroad, the prices for a pound of sugar range from $2.47 (810.16
CUP) to $4.72 (1,548.16 CUP), depending on the type of product.

This platform offers several options, although payments must be made in
foreign currency, and shipping costs are not included in the prices.

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