March 3, 2025
While Cuban sugar production is collapsing and sugar is scarce, the regime pompously reopens a pavilion at ExpoCuba to exalt the supposed achievements of the sugar agro-industry.
Cuba, in its propagandistic zeal, seizes every opportunity to make a fool of itself: While the country's sugar production is experiencing its worst crisis in decades, the regime has chosen to pompously and celebratorily reinaugurate the pavilion dedicated to agribusiness at ExpoCuba, the largest fairground in the country.
A report from the Cuban Television Information System explained that the opening of this pavilion in ExpoCuba, which has recently been affected by weather events, was an “indication of the direction of the Cuban government,” which, it seems, cannot find a better way to utilize the limited resources of the regime.
The irony is evident: the country that depended on sugar as its main source of export and wealth for centuries now proudly displays a flag while national production crumbles and sugar is scarce even in the basic grocery basket.
According to the television report, the reopening is due to the "collective effort" of several national companies that contributed to repairing the damages caused by weather events at ExpoCuba.
However, nothing was mentioned about the serious crisis in the sugar industry, which reached one of its lowest production levels in history in 2023 and has forced the import of sugar for domestic consumption, an unthinkable situation in the past.
Furthermore, the report emphasized that the rescue of the pavilion serves to highlight the "importance of sugarcane and its derivatives" to children and young people, in an effort to educate them about a sector that the government itself has driven to collapse after years of disinvestment, closure of mills, and poor management policies.
Meanwhile, Cubans continue to face a shortage of sugar, a product that used to be synonymous with national identity but has now become another symbol of the regime's economic failure.
The AZCUBA Technological Observatory announced on its X profile that ExpoCuba has "dressed up in style" with the reopening of the Sugar Agroindustry pavilion.
Additionally, he emphasized that Julio A. García Pérez, the president of the Sugar Group, attended along with executives, workers, and their families. While ExpoCuba showcases the "achievements and history" of the Cuban sugar industry, the reality is diametrically opposite.
The sugar harvest 2024-2025 in Cuba is facing one of its worst crises: of the 14 mills planned for the campaign, only six were operational last January, resulting in the grinding of just 25 percent of the planned sugarcane.
In statements to the official newspaper Granma, Dionis Pérez Pérez, director of Information, Communication, and Analysis at the Azcuba Sugar Group, reported that while processes reach 90% efficiency, sugar production is only at 21%, a level well below expectations.
This critical situation is attributed to the late start and the non-incorporation of eight plants, which are responsible for 75% of the sector's productive debt.
Similarly, inflation in Cuba continues to set records daily: a woman from Santiago shared in December that the price of sugar reached 550 pesos per pound in that eastern province of Cuba, reflecting the alarming rise in the cost of basic goods amid the economic crisis.
This situation has led Cuban families to seek alternatives that pose health risks, such as the use of instant soft drinks to sweeten food and beverages, as a replacement for sugar extracted from cane.
The most critical point of this issue is that, currently, many people are forced to buy sugar on online platforms targeting the Cuban market, where prices, according to the supplier, range from 2 to 4 dollars.