ES / EN
- August 11, 2025 -
No Result
View All Result
OnCubaNews
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors
OnCubaNews
ES / EN
Home Cuba Economy Cuban Economy

A paean to sugar cane

by
  • Milena Recio
    Milena Recio
July 31, 2013
in Cuban Economy
0

…and the green bough in the air, ownerless…
Nicolás Guillén

In 1940, Cuban scholar Fernando Ortiz published his colossal Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azúcar (Cuba’s Musical Dialogue between Tobacco and Sugar), an ethnographic and sociological portrait of Cuba’s development. “Lady Sugar,” the daughter of the green sugar cane, the queen that has reigned in the Cuban countryside for centuries, is one of the protagonists of this unsurpassable treatise on the Cuban identity. That “white gold” was such an important part of shaping the nation that some economic sectors worked successfully to propagate the myth that “without sugar there would be no country.”

However, from early on Ortiz warned of the dangers involved in a single export crop economy of sugar cane. “The Cuban sugar cane grower has not been able to employ all of the productive power of his fields and mills, castrated by a foreign regimen of quotas that restricted his sugar production. He has not been able to produce the many products deriving from the substances extracted from the sweet cane….”

Ortiz’s lucidness on the subject is an inevitable legacy now, 70 years later: sugar cane is more than sugar, and many other fruits are still to come from those fields.

infografias Econ-Neg-No18 (2)

 

Related Posts

Streets of Old Havana with the Capitol in the background

Notes on our circumstances

July 20, 2025
xr:d:DAFlLH53xAU:282,j:1521492641457684093,t:23090415

Government authorizes representation in Cuba of five more foreign companies, one from the U.S.

June 21, 2025
Cuban Architecture. Crisis in Cuba

A permanent congress of Cuban economists and accountants

June 14, 2025
Havana Cathedral. Cuba’s main economic partners

Who are Cuba’s main economic partners?

May 31, 2025

infografias-Econ-Neg-No18-(3)

infografias-Econ-Neg-No18-(6)

Sugar cane R+D

Many specialists agree that one of the country’s possibilities for overcoming its agriculture crisis, especially in the sugar agro-industry, is the number of engineers and technicians it has in that sector and its accumulation of high-level scientific research. One example of that is the work of the Cuban Institute for the research of Sugar Cane Derivatives (ICIDCA), created in 1963, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Its objective has been to “provide scientific support to the development of technologies for comprehensive and diversified use of sugar cane.” Its researchers have developed, assimilated, and adapted technologies from sugar can byproducts that can be applied to various economic sectors:

  • Biogas from distillers solubles
  • Torula Yeast, made from distillers solubles
  • Production of probiotics as dietary supplements (Probicid)
  • Production of foliar fungicides (Gluticid)
  • Synthetic hormones for fruit set (Tomaticid)
  • Production of furfural from bagasse
  • Furan resins for foundry applications
  • Urea-PF resins for foundry agglutinating agents
  • Hydrolyzed bagasse for animal feed
  • Furfural-acetone resins for anticorrosivo mortar
  • Mold release agent for concrete molds from sugarcane wax (Ceramold)
  • Polysaccharide inhibitor for protecting the quality of harvested sugar cane and its juices (Ifopol)
  • Vegetable phytostimulant (Fitomas)

2013, Diversification

From October 14 to 18 of this year, the 12th International Congress on Sugar and Sugar Cane Derivatives 2013 will be held at Cuba’s Hotel Nacional, cosponsored by the ICIDCA, AZCUBA, the National Institution for Sugar Cane Research (INICA), the association of Sugar Technicians of Cuba (ATAC), the International Sugar Organization, and the Mexican Sugar Technicians Association (ATAM).  Presentations will be made on subjects such as industrial efficiency and quality management, renewable energy in the sugar industry, biofuels, sugar cane agriculture, animal feed, the environment, water and residuals, bioproducts and agrochemicals, alcohol and beverages, and new materials from renewable sources.

infografias Econ-Neg-No18 (1)

infografias-Econ-Neg-No18-(5)inglés

 

  • Milena Recio
    Milena Recio
Previous Post

State and private business: hand in hand and up the Rampa

Next Post

Sugar cane: is the queen returning to her throne?

Milena Recio

Milena Recio

Editora, periodista y profesora. En ese orden, según las horas del día que actualmente dedico a cada oficio, con sincera e íntima impresión de aprendiz.

Next Post

Sugar cane: is the queen returning to her throne?

The delicious secret of El Aljibe

José Manuel Carreño: leads another U.S. ballet company

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The conversation here is moderated according to OnCuba News discussion guidelines. Please read the Comment Policy before joining the discussion.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Most Read

  • The Enchanted Shrimp of the Cuban Dance

    3169 shares
    Share 1268 Tweet 792
  • Venezuelan oil supply to Cuba jumps in July, according to news agencies

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • Cuba and Haiti, only two regional economies set to decline in 2025, according to ECLAC

    11 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 3
  • Italian and Cuban “rescue workers” save a Havana corner from a foretold failure

    7 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2
  • Marylin Monroe and Afro-Americans

    621 shares
    Share 248 Tweet 155

Most Commented

  • Entrance to San Juan Park, located east of Santiago.

    San Juan Hill: heritage in the attic?

    30 shares
    Share 12 Tweet 8
  • MSMEs barely growing and their slowdown hinders competition and economic dynamism

    28 shares
    Share 11 Tweet 7
  • About us
  • Work with OnCuba
  • Terms of use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Moderation policy for comments
  • Contact us
  • Advertisement offers

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • World
  • Cuba
  • Cuba-USA
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Infographic
  • Culture
    • Billboard
  • Sports
  • Styles / Trends
  • Media
  • Special
  • Cuban Flavors

OnCuba and the OnCuba logo are registered® trademarks of Fuego Enterprises, Inc., its subsidiaries or divisions.
OnCuba © by Fuego Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}