Virendra Singh Rawat / Lucknow
Cuba, once known as ‘Sugar Bowl’ of the world, has sought India’s support to enhance sugar productivity through modernisation and technological advancements of its domestic plants.
Cuba has approached National Sugar Institute (NSI), Kanpur for the knowhow to utilise sugar byproducts for producing value added products including green energy.
Cuban Research Institute on Sugarcane Derivatives (ICIDCA), under the aegis of the Sugar Enterprises Group of Cuba (AZCUBA), has intended to enter into a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
In February 2023, a team led by Mariela Gallardo Capote, ICIDCA General Director, visited the NSI campus to look into activities and hold preliminary discussions.
“We had another round of discussions on the subject and now we have formally received the draft MoU from them,” NSI Kanpur director Narendra Mohan said.
Once, Cuba was world famous for sugar production, but now the sugar industry is in decay even as its envious status has been taken over by Brazil and India.
Interestingly, Cuban industry was heavily dependent on exports to erstwhile Soviet Union and East European states, but after the collapse of Soviet Union, the South American country was jolted and could never recover.
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Meanwhile, the NSI is seeking the approval of its administrative ministry that is the union ministry of consumer affairs for the formal signing of the agreement.