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Cuba sugar planting over 50 pct behind schedule

HAVANA: Planting of new sugar cane for Cuba's harvest next year is well behind schedule, with less than half the target completed for the January-April planting season, official media said Thursday.

The state news agency AIN said that in the period January- April 30, the target was to plant 166,526 acres of cane. But so far, only 78,380 acres had been sown, it said.

There was a need to give a "complete turnaround" in this situation," AIN said, without giving reasons for why planting was so far behind schedule.

The delays are in stark contrast to official optimism that the current 1995-96 harvest is set to be a big improvement on last year's production.

Officials expect the country to meet its target of 4.5 million tonnes, compared with production of 3.3 million tonnes in the 1994-95 harvest. President Fidel Castro said on Tuesday production had already nearly reached 3.8 million tonnes.-Reuter