Spare a thought for the people of Cuba.   In October, Cuba suffered through a week of extended blackouts when 7 out of 8 power plants were out of action. After power was restored it meant people in Havana, the capital city, got 4 or 5 hours of electricity a day. (So they only had 20 hour blackouts each day, instead of 24 hour ones). According to The National, people often travel by horse-drawn carts rather than motor cars, and in the countryside, it's a common sight to see ploughs being pulled by oxen. "Motorways connecting major cities are eerily quiet. "

Not surprisingly, in the last few years, ten percent of the entire population has left (mostly for Florida). Unfortunately for Cuba, these were the working age adults. Predictably, the loss of productive workers and productive electricity means the loss of product, and so it has come to pass:

Cuba Runs Out of Sugar

John Hindraker, Powerline

This is like Libya running out of sand: Cuba is now an importer of sugar:

The Cuban government acknowledged that it is "shameful" for the island, traditionally one of the leading sugar producers in Latin America, to be forced to import this product.

Cuba was once known as the Sugar Bowl of the world.

John Hindraker calculates that the current cost of a pound of sugar in Cuba is about $25 US.

Blackouts on top of Blackouts

Apparently, the Cuban grid managers were expecting to be 1,311MW short today on a grid that was theoretically 3,150 MW. The reasons being just about everything:

Cuba's Electric Union Warns of Major Power Outages This Friday

The power outages are primarily due to a deficit in power generation, compounded by issues such as equipment failures and maintenance at key thermal power plants, as well as fuel shortages affecting distributed generation stations.