For generations, sugar defined Cuba.
The Caribbean island was once the world's leading sugar exporter, producing millions of tons annually and earning the nickname "the sugar bowl of the world." Today, however, Cuba is increasingly promoting an entirely different sweetener: stevia.
The shift comes as the country's sugar industry continues its historic collapse, forcing authorities to look for alternatives to sweeten food and diversify agricultural production.
According to El Nuevo Herald, Cuban state television highlighted new research and cultivation efforts involving Stevia rebaudiana in the eastern province of Holguín, presenting the plant as a crop with potential benefits for agriculture, health and scientific development.
The report described stevia as a plant that has been used for centuries by the Indigenous Guaraní people of South America before being scientifically documented in the late 19th century. Cuban researchers say its leaves are between 100 and 300 times sweeter than sugar while containing virtually no calories.
"Stevia can contribute to sweetening any of the foods we consume," researcher Yelenys Alvarado of the Central University of Las Villas said during the state television report. She also pointed to the plant's potential health benefits, including helping regulate blood glucose levels.
Unlike sugar cane, stevia can also be cultivated in relatively small spaces, including home gardens, making it attractive at a time when Cuba is struggling to maintain large-scale agricultural production.
The government's renewed focus on the plant comes as the country's signature crop faces one of the deepest crises in its history. According to calculations by EFE based on official data, Cuba's 2024-2025 sugar harvest failed to reach 150,000 metric tons, the lowest production level in more than a century and less than half of the government's already modest production target.
The figure marks a stunning reversal for a country where sugar once dominated the economy.
During the Cold War, Cuba regularly produced between 7 million and 8 million metric tons of sugar annually. Fidel Castro famously launched the ambitious "10 Million Ton Harvest" campaign in 1970, mobilizing much of the nation in an unsuccessful attempt to reach that symbolic production goal.
Today, only a fraction of the island's sugar mills remain operational.
Official reports indicate that just 15 sugar mills participated in the latest harvest, compared with the more than 150 mills that once operated across the country. Many facilities have been shuttered for years because of deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages, equipment failures and chronic underinvestment.
The consequences extend far beyond the sugar industry itself.
Experts warn that current production is no longer sufficient to fully satisfy domestic demand, threatens Cuba's rum industry, which relies on locally produced sugar, and prevents the government from fulfilling preferential export agreements with China.
The decline reflects broader economic challenges affecting the island.
Since 2020, Cuba has endured one of its deepest economic crises in decades, marked by prolonged blackouts, fuel shortages, inflation, food scarcity and declining agricultural output. The country's economy has contracted sharply over that period as repeated nationwide power outages have disrupted manufacturing and food production.
Against that backdrop, officials have increasingly promoted alternative crops capable of supplementing domestic food production.
Holguín is not the first province experimenting with stevia. Earlier this year, Cuban television also highlighted cultivation projects in Artemisa, although authorities stopped short of directly linking those initiatives to the country's worsening sugar shortages.
Even so, the timing is difficult to ignore.
As sugar production reaches historic lows, Cuba is investing public attention in a plant whose primary use is replacing sugar itself.
Whether stevia becomes a meaningful agricultural industry remains uncertain. The crop occupies only a tiny fraction of the land once dedicated to sugar cane and cannot replace the economic role that sugar historically played through exports, employment and foreign currency earnings. Still, its promotion signals a remarkable transformation for a country whose identity has long been intertwined with sugar.
