Havana, May 29 (RHC) –- The Cuban 2014-2015 sugar cane harvest closed with 18 percent production growth compared to last year, but fell four percent short of its output schedules, according to a report by the Sugar Group Azcuba.

Although production results are still far off the expected plans, it is important to acknowledge that over the past five years sugar
production has registered an increase, with the recently concluded harvest being the largest in the past 11 years.

The harvest was not exempt of big efforts against time to conclude repairs and investment projects, due to late delivery of parts and other resources by import companies, said Azcuba Group Communications official Liobel Perez. This situation did not allow 11 sugar mills to start operations on time and led to breakdowns during their performance.

However, the main problem that affected the sugar harvest was the low use of sugar mill potentials, only at 65 percent. Perez added
that the transportation of sugar and syrups from the mills led to problems and delays as well, despite the efforts by transportation companies.

However, experts agreed that the industrial process was marked by growing efficiency, meaning 10.27 tons of sugar per every one hundred tons of sugar cane, while in previous harvests that indicator stood at 9.50 tons of sugar.

Other growing productions are those of alcohol, animal feed, electric energy, while sugar quality continued to grow in terms of its physical and chemical parameters.