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Cuba reports worst sugar harvest since 1905

By David Ariosto, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Cuba's sugar harvest this year is its worst since 1905, state-run newspaper reports
  • Mills face an 850,000-ton deficit in production expectations
  • News comes two days after President Raul Castro fired the nation's sugar minister
RELATED TOPICS
  • Cuba

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.