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A LACK OF SUGAR HAS THROWN CUBA’S RUM INDUSTRY INTO CRISIS - WITH UK TOURISTS FACING A SHORTAGE ON EUROPEAN UNION SHORES, TOO. 09:09, 03 Jun 2025 A shortage of a popular drink has rocked
Spain and Greece - with millions of UK tourists warned. A lack of sugar has thrown Cuba’s rum industry into crisis - with UK tourists facing a shortage on European Union shores, too. This
year’s tiny harvest casts doubt on the spirit’s recent resurgence, once a bright spot in the island’s economy. Cuba’s state-run monopoly, Azcuba, is likely to produce just 165,000 metric
tonnes of sugar this year. That compares with harvests of 8m in the late 1980s. Michael Bustamante, chair of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, described the
situation as “dismal”. READ MORE UK FACES 'SPANISH SCORCHER' HEATWAVE WITH 31C AS EXACT DATE IT STARTS ANNOUNCED “You have to go back to the 19th century to find numbers this low,”
he said. With the supply of molasses drying up, all this work is threatened. “I think the fourth quarter will be particularly tough,” said the executive. “There won’t be any alcohol.”
Article continues below “The sugar production numbers have been steadily decreasing for the better part of 20 years, but particularly over the last five,” said Bustamante. “I think it’s just
as clear a signal as you can get over the dire straits of the economy overall.” Azcuba planned to produce 265,000 metric tons of raw sugar this year. But as the milling season has neared
its end, output was running about 100,000 tons short, a Reuters estimate found, based on official media reports and sources with knowledge of the situation. An authentic Cuban rum must use
alcohol produced from Cuban cane sugar, but plunging production has unsettled the industry, a foreign businessman told Reuters, requesting anonymity. Article continues below “Because rum
must age, we have been using our stocks and the concern is, will we have new stocks looking forward?” he said. Cuba was once the world’s top sugar exporter, churning out 8 million metric
tons of raw sugar in 1989. The collapse of its former benefactor, the Soviet Union, sparked a steady decline.