A Hard Habit To Break

lured by the high prices of sugar lately (about 19 cents per pound earlier this year, as opposed to 5 to 7 cents per pound in the early 2000's) Cubaland decided to get back into the sugar business earlier this year.

this after Cubaland dismantled most of its mills and demobilized the huge work force needed for the labor-intensive sugar crop a few years back, convinced it could never make sugar pay off (can we say, "Ooops"?).

earlier this year, the drive to rebuild got started. back then, prices were 19 cents per pound of sugar. since then, they have fallen further, to 13 cents per pound.

nevertheless, as recently as last week, the sugar minister (an old army general and associate of Raul Castro) vowed to increase sugar production by at least 25 percent this year and to triple production to 3 million tons in the next few years (damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, right?)

wow ... three million tons of sugar per year. sounds like a lot, doesn't it?

not if you consider than in 1958, the Cuban sugar harvest was 5.8 million tons. and that was with a guerilla war on.

so much for progress.