• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 09 / 30 / 2010

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HAVANA. September 29, 2010, 11:15AM ET text size: TT, Adios, cafe con leche?

Cuba -- where super-strong shots of espresso are a way of life -- says it had its worst coffee harvest in history last year, with production plummeting to just 5,500 tons nationwide.

And a full-page article in the Communist Party newspaper Granma on Wednesday warned that authorities will no longer fill the shortfall with imports. It said the government cannot afford to spend a projected $40 million this year and $47 million next just to keep islanders in high-octane caffeine.

Cuba was the world's top coffee exporter in the 1940s, Granma reported, producing a bean "that was very coveted in iscerning markets."

As recently as the harvest of 1961-1962, Cuba produced 60,000 tons.

The newspaper cited inefficiency and negligence as reasons for the drop in production, but did not go into detail.

Orlando Guevara, a coffee specialist at the Agricultural Ministry, told Granma that Cuba hopes to produce at least 6,700 tons of coffee in the coming harvest that begins in October and lasts about two months. He said Cuba hopes to one day get back to 1970s' level of 28,000 to 30,000 tons a year.

As part of an effort to improve coffee production, Cuba recently abandoned the long-held practice of using teams of ill-trained student volunteers to harvest coffee, most of which is grown in the island's east.

Strong, almost tar-like espresso is most commonly served on the island in thimble-sized shots cut with copious portions of sugar. Cafe con leche is strong espresso combined with a large glass of steamed milk. Though it is famous in Cuba, it is more commonly drunk by Cubans living in the United States or elsewhere.

But cafe con leche's days could be numbered on the island itself. Bad news about coffee production follows a report in May that Cuba recorded its worst sugar harvest in more than a century.

No official figures were given, but officials acknowledged there had not been "such a poor sugar campaign" since 1905, when the Cuban census reported 1.23 million tons of sugar were harvested in the 1905-1906 season.

Communist officials have also for years attempted to jump-start the country's foundering milk production, with only spotty results.

All of that could mean a lot less cafe con leche.

President Raul Castro has used every major address since taking over power from his older brother Fidel in July 2006 to stress the need to revive Cuba's farming sector and cut back on costly imports.

The Associated Press, By WILL WEISSERT

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/118153