After struggling hard against all kinds of obstacles, the workers of the Antonio Guiteras sugar mill put an end to the 2021-2022 harvest, which has become the most complex and difficult of those carried out by Las Tunas throughout its history.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- In a province that is a power in sugar production, nobody expected that the three factories involved in the operation –“Colombia,” “Majibacoa,” and “Antonio Guiteras”- would barely achieve a little over 63 thousand tons, the worst result ever in the Balcón de Oriente (Balcony of Eastern Cuba).

A similar fate befell the other parameters of agro-industrial efficiency since the use of the potential milling capacity - the leading indicator of the harvest- ended at the bottom, when 33 percent was computed at the territorial level.

In the specific case of the “Colossus” of the municipality of Puerto Padre, the fall was of such dimension that it did not even reach 30 thousand tons, an amount slightly higher than the 27 thousand that it produced during its first campaign, back in 1910, according to what is recorded in its files.

Rafael Pantaleón Quevedo, head of the AZCUBA Coordination and Support Team in Las Tunas, pointed out that such a low level of precision was influenced by the devastating economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States Government, the global crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic and, to a lesser extent, by internal deficiencies on the sector.

In any case, and despite the high degree of dissatisfaction that prevails among the sugar workers in Las Tunas, the truth is that both, the province and "Antonio Guiteras," closed the harvest in the first national place in sugar production; while "Majibacoa" took the second.

Now, men and women continue, with greater impetus, the Cuban battle to save its sugar agribusiness, which starts, as a first condition, by planting sugarcane. Such purposes require a greater effort because until the 23rd of this month only 1,760 hectares had been planted in the territory, the 24 percent of what was planned for May- and all the sugar companies achieve substantial delay.