Florida, Feb. 27 – The development of the sugar harvest in the municipality of Florida faces considerable challenges that endanger the fulfillment of the harvest plans and delivery of raw material to the industry foreseen in the current stage.
The lack of electricity, instability of milling at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes sugar mill and shortage of lubricants, gases and spare parts, together with the excess of burnt cane and problems with the cars and trailers for the transportation of the cane have an impact on the low volumes of cut and shot recorded since the beginning of the harvest until the middle of the current month.
To cite just one example: 25 percent of the total estimated cane to be milled in Florida in the current crop year suffered under the impact of unscheduled fires, which caused the loss of most of those volumes left to be harvested in the fields.
According to official sources, the sugar agro-industrial companies of the municipality had planned to collect, as a whole, about 65 thousand tons of sugarcane during the current harvest, and up to date only about four thousand tons have been sent to the industry for the manufacture of crude.
Despite the difficulties and limitations, the sugar harvest remains a pillar of the Floridian economy and of the country itself, taking into account the need to produce the sugar demanded by the family basket of Cubans and the rest of the sectors in charge of producing items derived from this food.
