A recent report by the sugar ministry reckoned that there were three reasons for the poor harvest: lack of financing; poor management and understanding of the changes that had been made, and, thirdly, heavy rain.
Rodríguez seems to have taken over the management of the industry. Previously, this was done by General Ulises Rosales del Toro. Rodríguez has set up a management committee, which meets weekly, to review the progress of the crop and to marshal the resources that are needed. He said that a key goal will be to ensure that nothing prevents the mills that are used from operating efficiently. This year, apparently, there was a lot of unnecessary stopping and starting. Only 71 mills were used while 14 were used to produce molasses.
The deputy sugar minister, Manuel Avila, said that the industry would do more to train millworkers. There would also be more work done on ways of managing the cane cutting and on transporting the cane to the mills.
Cuba's sugar industry is not very efficient, even after the restructuring this year. The government admits that it still costs 359 pesos (or dollars, officially) to produce each tonne of sugar. The target is to get this down to 260 pesos/t.
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