the fact elephant economists band baaja thank you very much for being on the. cuba used to be a world leader in sugar production it once accounted for seventy five percent of cuban exports but for the first time the communist nation is turning to imports from as far away as france hurrican erma ravaged the island and its harvest that was followed by an unusually long rainy season police you know borrow quickly noticed a curious turn of events when produced from cane as in cuba sugar tends to be brownish but the french version comes from beets and is white yes in fact you know it is we will win this on the sugar that has now been arriving is good it's very sweet not very different from cuban sugar that the main difference is the colors of . cuba's sugar industry was once the flagship of the arms up of cultural exports fidel castro cutting sugar canes after the revolution illustrated the france importance to the nation the soviet union used to buy most of cuba's sugar after the fall of communism in europe trade figures dwindled as did investments in seeds and fer