Post #528362 by arriano on Thu, May 6, 2010 10:49 AM

Saw this story this morning. If you have access to Havana Club, might want to pick up a few bottles in case prices skyrocket.

Cuba reports worst sugar harvest since 1905
By David Ariosto, CNN
May 6, 2010 12:19 p.m. EDT

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- Cuba's sugar harvest this year is the worst it's been since 1905, the country's state-run daily newspaper reported.

Citing poor organizational planning, the report said the country's sugar mills face an 850,000-ton deficit in production expectations, the Granma newspaper said Wednesday.

The news comes two days after Cuban President Raul Castro fired Sugar Minister Luis Manuel Avila Gonzalez, after the official requested his release because of admitted shortcomings in performance.

Avila was replaced by Orlando Celso Garcia Ramirez.

Cuba was once a world leader in sugar exportation, but the industry has faced a steady decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the accompanying subsidies that once boosted production on the island nation.