Evening star., 1925-06-15
SUGAR MEN FACE
LOSS OF MILLIONS
Immense Cuban Crop Blow
to Industry In U. S.
Dividends Cut.
BY HARDEN COLFA.X

Cuba's great overproduction of
sugar this year has turned to bitter
ness the lot of the American sugar
producer. His profits of the past
have melted to the vanishing point.
Many domestic cane and beet pro-
B ducers have cut their dividends by
half or more; others are finding it
necessary to forego dividends alto
sether; still others face heavy losses.
AS a sidelight. losses of millions in
Government reclamation projects are
threatened, and growers face the
hardest going they have encountered
for years.
Blow to Domestic Industry.
Such are the somewhat dismal ad-
vices to the trades headquarters
here and the governmental bureaus
directly interested in promoting the
domestic sugar industry. The unpre-
cedented output from CUBA, dominat-
ing the American market, has dissi-
pated the profits of the entire do
mestic industry. it is claimed. Many
Cuban growers are reported to be
making money, although not on SO
large a scale as formerly.
!. Latest New York quotations on
Sugar have ranged between 4.43 and
4.46 cents a pound. delivered and duty
paid. Latest available figures, COM
piled by the Tariff Commission and
covering operations in 1922, show
that the production and marketing
costs of various kinds of domestic
sugars are approximately as follows:
Porto Rican sugar, 4.31 cents;
Hawaiian sugar. 4.49 cents; Louisiana
sugar, 4.9S cents; beet sugar, 6.64
cents.
With Cuban sugar selling in Amer
i-av o,-ly otr OF
and American beet sugar costing 6.64
cents to produce and market, it
doesn't require an expert accountant
to figure the losses to the beet in
dustry. They probably will be colos-
sal this year, and will be reflected
down to the grower.
The figures cited above are three
years old, but they are the latest
available official information, and
mestic producers. located in Wash
ington, assert that their costs today
are virtually the same as those cited
above
On the other side of the picture,
Cuban factory and marketing costs
during 1922 were reported to the
Tariff Commission as approximately
2.37 cents pound. Since then, how
ever, one of the largest Cuban sugar
idCIOtS, Tie SZdTHihO" fSlO1ud SOIH-
pany, has made public (within the
past two weeks) a report stating:
While no definite figures have been
determined. 1t Is generally admitted
that the lowest price at which the
most favored Cuban plantations can
place pound of s6 degree centrifugal
sugar I. o. b. steamer Is 27 cents;
others not well situated or having
higher cost of cane must have ~
cents to cover their initial cost. Still
others. among the smaller plants,
need 3 cents to come out even"
To these figures should be added the
transportation and duty of 1.76 cents
a pound. When that is done it would
seem to show that only the most ia
vored" Cuban producers can break
even at present prices. and that
smaller or less favorably situated
plants in Cuba face a slight loss in
the prevailing American market.
Tho Czarnikow- -Rionda report has
aroused much interest among do
mestic sugar producers. who, in many
cases, question the accuracy of the
cost figures.
Copyright. 1e2b3