SUGAR CANE AND SUGAR PRODUCTION IN CUBA AND ITS COMPETITIVENESS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

This paper aims to present the development and economic circumstances of sugar cane and sugar production in Cuba, including the period of restructuring as well as the current issues of competitiveness of this commodity on the world market. Sugarcane production has traditionally played a key role in the Cuban economy from the beginning of its colonial past. Big market shocks were caused by the Cuban revolution of 1959, during the period after the collapse of Communism in many countries in the 1990s, especially the collapse of the Soviet Union, on which Cuba was heavily economically dependent, and finally the fundamental restructuring of the whole sector at the beginning of the new millennium. Nowadays, sugar cane and sugar production are facing a continuous inefficiency of the Cuban economy, but also more frequent unfavourable weather changes, leading to enormous harvest damages and consequent low sugar production.