President Raúl Castro has called time on the ministry of sugar. In its place he has created a state holding company which faces the challenge of jumpstarting the former motor of the Cuban economy. This is really an exercise in cost-saving and efficiency, which Castro is endeavouring to carry out wholesale across the Cuban economy. Still, the announcement in the Communist party mouthpiece Granma that the once pre-eminent sugar ministry no longer carried out “any functions of state” was a savage epitaph.
The downward spiral of the sugar industry has been much-chronicled. Fidel Castro began the streamlining of the sugar industry back in 2002, when the number of plants was cut dramatically from 156 to 61 to improve efficiency, and the land given over to sugar plantation was gradually reduced from 2m hectares to 750,000 hectares. The decision that the sugar ministry should be closed was taken during a council of ministers last week. Sugar cane cutters will now be reorganised into 13 provincial companies, under the aegis of an umbrella holding company known as Grupo Empresarial de la Agroindustria Azucarera: the number of sugar mills will be cut once again from 61 to 56, with just 46 operating during the next harvest.
The harvest in 2010 was the worst in 105 years, with production reaching just 1.1m tonnes, a far cry from the 8.2m tonnes produced at the end of the 1980s. Given that Cuba itself consumes a minimum of 600,000 tonnes of sugar annually, and the country is tied into an agreement to supply China with 400,000 tonnes a year, increasing production is essential. The target is 2.5m tonnes by 2015.
It is not entirely clear how this ambitious target will be reached. Castro, who said the new holding company would need to “generate exports to finance its own costs”, is promising to modernise the sugar sector with more efficient management and by means of new technology. He also raised the possibility of foreign investment through mixed companies, but supplied no further details. Neither did he reveal who would run the new holding company, although past form would suggest that he is likely to place his faith in members of the military or históricos of the Revolution.
Reform comes with repression?
More political dissidents were arrested in September than any single month in the last 30 years, according to the Cuban commission for human rights and national reconciliation (CCDHRN). The number of arrests (563, compared with a monthly average of 278 in the first eight months of the year) shows “the absolute lack of political will on the part of the government of President Raúl Castro to improve the situation of civil, political, economic and cultural rights of the immense majority of the population,” the CCDHRN claimed in a report released on 3 October. It added that the Castro administration’s promised changes were “false signals”.
US President Barack Obama said much the same five days earlier during an online roundtable discussion aimed at re-engaging with the Hispanic community ahead of presidential elections next year. Obama said that the US was prepared to change its policy on Cuba but that he had not seen any evidence to suggest that Cuba’s reforms would lead to greater political freedom or justified lifting the trade embargo. His words sparked a fierce response from Fidel Castro. Writing one of his Reflexiones, Castro said “Many things will change in Cuba, but they will change because of our efforts and in spite of the United States. Perhaps even before that empire collapses.”
- Targets missed
The official press continued with a recent tradition of lacerating criticism of inefficiency this week. Granma released a damning report arguing that milk production in the eastern province of Camagüey, Cuba’s agricultural heartland, was insufficient. “Justifications, absurd explanations and promises are forming part of the arsenal used by some businesses and administrative cadres... to evade responsibility when failing to meet production targets,” it said. It also accused some producers of selling milk illegally rather than adhering to their contracts to supply the state. President Raúl Castro has made increasing milk production a major objective of his government to try and reduce imports.
