King sugar slims down
Granma reports a major sugar industry overhaul to boost efficiency a
year after Cuba posted its smallest harvest since 1905.
By PETER ORSI
Associated Press
HAVANA -- Cuba's once-mighty sugar industry is going on a diet.
Authorities are shuttering all but 26 of the 178 bureaucratic entities
associated with sugar production and eliminating an unspecified number
of jobs to slash administrative costs by 55 percent, Communist Party
newspaper Granma said Friday.
"The new structure … will make it possible to improve organization,
reduce expenses and, above all, bolster productivity," Granma said in an
article running on two full pages. "This will generate the necessary
revenue for the industry to fund itself and contribute to the national
economy."
The restructuring is part of a major industry overhaul to boost
efficiency a year after authorities reported a harvest of 1.1 million
tons of sugar, the smallest since 1905. Officials announced in September
that the Sugar Ministry was being scrapped in favor of a sugar company
that will answer to the Council of State and is to be self-sufficient.
Like coffee, rum and cigars, sugar is one of Cuba's most iconic
products. The island used to be a world leader in sugar, producing 6
million- to 7 million-ton yields annually.
Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had made the sugar harvest a point of
national pride, mobilizing much of the urban population to help farmers
cut cane in the countryside.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, however, deprived Cuba of its main
buyer, and the $600 million-a-year sugar industry now trails nickel
production and tourism as a source of foreign income. Rising prices in
recent years have prompted officials to revamp the sector.
Granma didn't say how many workers are being affected by the
restructuring, but said the government will help them retrain or find
jobs. Many have already been reassigned, and those for whom no new
position is found will continue to draw a salary.
"The relocation of leaders, specialists and experienced technicians will
make it possible to better exploit the training and qualifications of
those who until now have been spending their time on fragmented or less
useful tasks," the newspaper said. "Even other sectors … will be
beneficiaries by receiving part of this (labor) force."
Even high government officials have criticized the Sugar Ministry as
maintaining a bloated bureaucracy and for involving itself in tangential
operations such as rail transportation and sugar exportation.
Under the new system, those and other responsibilities will pass to
other ministries, leaving the sugar company to focus on its core mission
of production, Granma said.
The sugar overhaul is being instituted alongside a host of other
economic reforms being pushed by President Raul Castro, including
stimulating the creation of independent small businesses, laying off
hundreds of thousands from government payrolls and turning over fallow
state land to private farmers and cooperatives.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/18/2509068/king-sugar-slims-down.html#storylink=misearch
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