By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Aug 28 (Reuters) -
The Cuban coffee harvest began ahead of schedule this week, with farmers
scrambling to pick ripe beans over the weekend as tropical storm Isaac bore
down on the island and then left a rapidly maturing crop in its wake.
Isaac moved along the north
coast of the eastern part of the country on Saturday, home to some 90 percent
of the coffee crop, shaking plants and delivering torrential rains before
heading toward the United States.
"We picked mature beans
as Isaac's winds blew around us, and now we have to move the harvest up because
lots of coffee will ripen quickly," coffee farmer Adela Martinez said in a
telephone interview from eastern Santiago de Cuba.
Isaac left the crop maturing
more rapidly than expected, but otherwise left it unscathed, other sources in
the major producing provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago and Granma said.
Losses suffered in the
coffee-producing municipality of Maisi, in easternmost Guantanamo province were
still being quantified as residents rushed to collect fallen beans.
Cuba produced 7,100 tonnes
of semi-processed beans during the 2011-2012 harvest and plans to increase
production this season to 8,500 tonnes, according to the Agriculture Ministry.
The harvest usually begins
in September, with the bulk of the beans picked from October through January.
Last season's crop was the
best in over a decade, as reforms aimed at reducing imports apparently kicked
in.
Communist Cuba's 35,000
growers, in exchange for low-interest government credits and subsidized
supplies, must sell all of their coffee to the state at prices that
historically have been below what the beans fetch on the black market.
Local analysts said 10 to 20
percent of the crop was diverted, though recent increases in state prices may
have lessened the flow.
The country's plantations,
which at the time of the 1959 revolution produced 60,000 tonnes of coffee, have
steadily declined ever since.
Cuban president Raul Castro,
as part of his efforts to improve food production and cut massive imports, has
pointed to coffee as a crop ripe for increased attention and growth.
Cuba imported 18,000 tonnes
of semi-processed beans from Vietnam in 2010 at a cost of $38 million, and a
bit less in 2011, though no figures are available.
The state has leased
abandoned coffee plantations over the last few years to hundreds of individuals
to grow coffee and has nearly tripled the price it pays farmers for their
beans.
Cuban farmers are now
growing coffee in the lowlands with the aim of both selling to the state and
directly to consumers, according to local media.
Plans call for producing
22,000 tonnes in 2015 and eventually 28,000 to 30,000 tonnes a year, equal to
levels in the 1970s.
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Reporting
By Marc Frank; Editing by Jeff Franks and David Gregorio