Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
19750131
-YEAR-
1975
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
INTERVIEW
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO CONFIRMS NEW SOVIET SUGAR AGREEMENT
-PLACE-
CUBA
-SOURCE-
BUENOS AIRES LATIN
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19750203
-TEXT-
CASTRO REPORTEDLY CONFIRMS NEW SOVIET SUGAR AGREEMENT

Buenos Aires LATIN in Spanish 1705 GMT 31 Jan 75 PA--FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

[REUTER item]

[Text] Havana, 31 Jan--[REUTER LATIN]--Prime Minister Fidel Castro has
announced here that the 2-year drought in Cuba will reduce the present
sugar harvest by 300,000 tons. During an informal talk with foreign
correspondents, Castro said that production is high at the present but gave
no figures. There has been no prediction regarding sugar production since
the "great harvest" of 1970 when 8.5 million tons were produced. Last year,
production was estimated at 5.9 millions tons. Most of the island's sugar
production goes to the Soviet Union.

When asked how much the Soviet union pays for Cuban sugar, Castro replied
that it was slightly under world prices, which ranged between $625 and
(?$707.1) per ton. He stressed, however, that the price had the advantage
of being stable. This has been the first official confirmation that Cuba
and the USSR have renegotiated the December 1972 agreement on sugar
according to which Moscow agreed to almost double the 11 cent per pound
price it had paid up until that time. Castro gave no exact figures.
-END-


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