News Summaries in May 2025
“Over a Barrel: Lack of Sugar Throws Cuba’s Rum Industry Into Crisis,” The Guardian, May 30 2025 A tiny sugar harvest in Cuba is casting doubt over the future of its rum industry. “You have to go back to the 19 th century to find numbers this low,” said Michael Bustamante, a University of Miami professor. Although Cuba has been importing sugar to feed people, the regulations of the rum industry are such that producers can only use sugar grown in Cuba. Cuba’s state-run monopoly Azcuba is only likely to produce an estimated 165,000 metric tons of sugar this year. In the late 1980s harvests averaged 8 million tons annually. “It is particularly worrying because the island’s rum industry has been a rare bright spot in its economy,” said Guardian reporter Ruaridh Nicoll. “Big international luxury brands are involved, competing in world markets with distinctive Cuban spirits.” Over the years the Cuban government has chronically underinvested in the machinery needed to produce suga...