Cuban sugar production falls further, rattling rum makers

By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban yearly earthy sweetener accumulation volition autumn beneath 200,000 metric tons successful 2025 for the archetypal clip since the 19th century, perchance leaving rum makers abbreviated of a cardinal ingredient, according to caller authoritative reports and an manufacture source.

State-run monopoly AZCUBA planned to nutrient 265,000 metric tons of earthy sweetener this year. But arsenic the milling play has neared its end, output was moving astir 100,000 tons short, a Reuters estimation found, based connected authoritative media reports and sources with cognition of the situation.

Cuba produced 350,000 metric tons of sweetener successful 2023, its astir caller data, compared with 1.3 cardinal successful 2019.

The Communist-run Caribbean Island nation, astatine 1 clip a large sweetener exporter, volition person to import much than it produces this twelvemonth to conscionable bare minimum demand, offering small solace to rum distilleries, which tin lone usage section product.

The National Statistics and Information Agency reported accumulation of sugar-based 96% ethanol intoxicant -- utilized successful distilling prime rum -- plunged 70% from 573,000 hectoliters successful 2019 to 174,000 past year. Another people of intoxicant utilized successful immoderate different rums fell a akin amount.

The outlook is the latest motion of Cuba`s collapsing economy, ravaged by U.S. sanctions, inefficiencies and the COVID-19 pandemic. Sugar cane accumulation and sweetener milling person dropped owed to shortages of cardinal inputs and mismanagement.

An authentic Cuban rum indispensable usage intoxicant produced from Cuban cane sugar, but plunging accumulation has unsettled the industry, a overseas businessman told Reuters, requesting anonymity.

“Because rum indispensable age, we person been utilizing our stocks and the interest is, volition we person caller stocks looking forward?” helium said.

Though sweetener mills stay open, yields typically driblet sharply successful May arsenic summertime rains complicate processing.

Just 1 of 13 sugar-producing provinces, Sancti Spiritus, had completed its program of a comparatively meager 19,000 tons by May. Villa Clara province, erstwhile a sweetener powerhouse, reported hitting 38% of a 27,000 ton target, and Cienfuegos reached astir two-thirds of a 38,000 ton plan.

In eastbound Cuba, Las Tunas state reported output astatine 5,000 tons, 11% of its plan. The Communist Party paper successful Las Tunas blamed concern breakdowns, substance shortages and a deficiency of lubricants -- a communal refrain crossed the industry.

The Caribbean land federation was erstwhile the world’s apical sweetener exporter, churning retired 8 cardinal metric tons of earthy sweetener successful 1989. The illness of its erstwhile benefactor, the Soviet Union, sparked a dependable decline.

(Reporting by Marc Frank; Editing by Dave Sherwood and Cynthia Osterman)