15:35 16Sep2004 Ivan benefits drought-stricken Cuban sugar crop

HAVANA, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Hurricane Ivan caused almost no damage to
Cuba's sugar industry as it roared by the western tip of the island Monday,
and the storm provided much-needed moisture to the drought-stricken crop,
media reports and sources said.
Damage was confined to western Pinar del Rio province which produced
75,000 tonnes of the most recent sugar harvest's 2.52 million tonnes of raw
sugar.
"Just a few of our 85 mills sustained minor damage and some cane is
under water," a local sugar expert said on Thursday, asking his name not be
used.
Brigades were hard at work draining flooded plantations before water
could suffocate the plants, top Cuban sugar reporter Juan Varela Perez said
Thursday in his daily radio spot.
Ivan provided little relief to the drought stricken eastern part of the
country as it passed south of the island, but precipitation increased as the
Category 5 storm neared, benefiting the rest of Cuba which has also suffered
a lack of rain this year.
"Sugar workers and farmers in the western provinces, as well as some
central provinces, have benefited from Ivan's rainfall, because they can now
increase planting," Varela said.
"Cane cut during the last harvest, which has been slow to grow back, now
has new life, increasing a bit yields for the coming harvest," he added.
Farmers have planted just 51 percent of the 380,000 acres of cane
planned for the year.
Cuba will postpone sugar milling into the new year and idle up to 20
mills due to draught damage to the crop, industry sources said, forecasting
output at 2 million tonnes of raw sugar, a 20 percent decline from
2003/2004.
The world's fourth-largest sugar exporting country sells abroad all but
700,000 tonnes of its crop.

Thursday, 16 September 2004 15:35:26RTRS [nN16500924] {C}ENDS