Cuban Sugar Minister Ulises Rosales del Toro announced an increase in the number of sugar mills active for the upcoming harvest, with a total of 51 factories.

The current situation of the Cuban sugar industry and sugar cane plantations, plus the economic need to carry out a harvest between January 1st and April 30th, allows for the operation of an additional nine sugar mills over the number of factories that worked in the last sugar cane harvest.

In recent statements, the Cuban Sugar Minister said the additional sugar mills did not work last year because of a low bulk of sugar cane or due to their need for important investment in their energy systems, Granma daily reported.

Ongoing harvest preparations, considered the best for the past few years, include investment in the management and control of sugar mill waste, the installation of boilers and a small group of generators.

Rosales del Toro assured that nearly all necessary resources for the campaign have been purchased on time and underscored the support offered by the Cuban government and especially by President Fidel Castro, in what constitutes a major encouragement for sugar workers to maintain the good pace of the economic process.

The Cuban government official also stressed the need for the harvest to be carried out during the most favourable period of time and he noted that when Cuba gets large distilleries the industrial process will take place in other periods of the year as well in order to just produce alcohol.

Cuba will destine resources in the modernization of its eleven distilleries, while the equipment for such a modernization is already on its way to the island.

The Cuban alcohol program includes the mounting of seven modern distilleries with production capacity of 300,000 litres a day, said Rosales del Toro. He also mentioned unstable sugar prices on the world market due to permanent speculation.