08 April 2010

CUBA: Replacing Sugar Ministry With State-Run Corporation And Foreign Investors.

TVNZ/NEWZEALAND/    In the most drastic reorganisation of the once-thriving sugar industry since it was downsized in 2002, Cuba will shutter its Sugar Ministry and replace it with a state-run corporation that will allow foreign investment and closing of inefficient sugar mills. Sugar was once the biggest earner but now is less than 5% of foreign exchange earnings. Only 700,000 hectares of the more than 2 million hectares once controlled by Cuba's sugar ministry now grow sugar cane.