Evening star., 1925-11-26
CUBA SEES BIGGEST
SUGAR YIELD YET
Mills Has Started Grinding
on About rs Per Cent of
World Outturn.
BY j. C. ROYLE.
pecial Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, November 26.-Cuba
has begun grinding what is expected
to prove the largest sugar crop in his
tory. President Machado declared that
the 1925-26 Cuban production would
represent nearly 25 per cent of the
world outturn. The island has only
lust COMPLETED the grinding of crop
which totaled 5.120.421 long tons. so
far the record annual yield of the
pearl Of the Antilles.
This year the weather has been such
that the sugar content of cane now
being ground is higher than at the
beginning of last season. Rains have
fallen in regions which needed them
and weather is favorable for grinding
Stocks at Cuban shipping ports are
over 270,000 tons higher than last
year. Prices for raw sugar are the
lowest they have been in years. Euro
pean beet sugar production is high.
with these factors in mind, Cuban
sugar producers are seeking adyan-
tages in dumping this huge outturn
on the American market.
Demand Tariff Removal.
Cuban growers, headed by the Cham
Der of Commerce of Santiago de Cuba,
American tariff on raw sugar The
argument they advance is that if they
get more for their sugar in the Ameri-
can markets through the removal of
the duty they could buy more freely
of American goods
Ihe Cuban growers also declare the
elimination of the tariff would make
the price of sugar lower to the Ameri-
can consumer. but economists point
out that If the burden OF the tariff
falls upon the consumer alone, Cuba
need not IVORY. The statisticians as
sert that this is one of those instances
where the tariff is falling upon for
eign producers
Cuban production has increased by
leaps and bounds despite the tariff. At
the close of the Spanish-Americsn
war the island was turning out about
ooO,OOo tons of sugar "A year and it
was claimed that 2.500,00 tons repre-
sented the maximum possible produc-
ton. The coming s>ason Cuba is ex-
pected to produce something like
5000. 900 tons
The Cuban planters. In dumping
the 1924-25 crop on the market, forced
sugar prices below the average of the
10 years before the war. American
sugar producers declare no other COM
modify price compares with this.
Cuba now has preferential tariff on
sugar. The full duty on this com
modify is 2.20 cents a pound, but
Cuba pays only 1.76 cents. The Gu
ban producer, therefore, can keep ali
other foreign sugars out of the United
States, and the only block TO COM
plete control of prices is the Ameri-
can beet sugar production and the
Louisiana cane crop.
American maintain that
reduction of the tariff would elimi-
nate American production and leave
the control entirely in Cuban hands.
They point out that when Cuba tenn
porarily had control of the market
some five years ago, the price was run
up from 51z cents a pound to 22A
cents.
Hard Season i'm West
Some of the sugar beet producers
have had hard season this year. The
California yield was reduced and
prices were anything but satisfactory
to growers. In the Michigan fields
unfavorable weather made ii exceed
ingly difficult for farmers to harN est
their crops before frost injured the
beets and factories were hampered by
lack of beet supplies.
The heavy November rainfall in
Louisiana has furnished setback to
canegrinding operations.
The Cuban crop still may be made
or unmade by the weather, but the
general indications are that prices &c
American consumers will continue
&.-,z