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2/04/13- Reuters (London) - Cuban sugar harvest revs up, but a bit behind schedule

    * Out of 50 mills, 46 now open * Final output forecast at 1.7 million
tonnes * Industry confident deficit will be made up

    HAVANA, Feb 4 (Reuters) - The Cuban sugar industry should realize plans
to produce just over 1.7 million tonnes of raw sugar this season, with
industrial yields and cane availability above expectations so far, the
official business weekly Opciones reported this week.  Leobel Perez
Hernandez, spokesperson for AZCUBA, the state-run holding company, said 46
of 50 mills were grinding and the rest would open this month.  Perez said
output would be 21 percent above the previous season's 1.4 million tonnes
of raw sugar when the last mill closes in May.  "Milling is stable, with
some very positive indicators. To date we have twice the sugar that we
produced by this time last year," he said.  Perez said that, despite the
progress and industrial yields averaging .30 percent above plan, production
to date was 7.8 percent behind schedule because some mills opened late and
were operating, on average, at 92.2 percent of planned capacity.  The
AZCUBA spokesman said that, with cane estimates running at 109 percent of
expectations, he was confident the deficit would be made up.  "We have a
bit more cane than was forecast which, combined with an industrial yield
.30 percent above what was planned, should  give us more sugar," he said.
"In this way we save cane and at the same time obtain more sugar ... which
allows us to count on a certain reserve at the end of the harvest to make
up for any deficit and, if weather permits, increase final output," Perez
said.  Cuba consumes between 600,000 and 700,000 tonnes of sugar and has a
400,000-tonne toll agreement with China.