Hurricane Sandy Brutalizes Cuban Coffee Crop

Local and international reports are suggesting that Cuba’s coffee crop may be its lowest in more than a century after Hurricane Sandy ripped through the island nation beginning Thursday, battering plantations and destroying processing centers.

Here’s the latest from Reuters:

Hurricane Sandy decimated the Cuban coffee crop and delivered a major setback to renovation of old plantations when it ripped through the eastern part of the country late last week, according to scattered media reports.

The storm left between 20 percent and 30 percent of the crop on the ground, damaged processing centers and roads and felled thousands of trees upon plantations as it pummeled the Sierra Maestra Mountains, where 92 percent of the crop is grown.

Cuban news authorities are reporting losses of harvested coffee of nearly 50 percent from at least two of the country’s main coffee growing regions along its eastern mountains. The country’s harvest is at its peak during October and November.