|
Nicaragua Other Crops
Although much of lowland Nicaragua has a climate
conducive to growing sugarcane, poor transportation has
limited
production to roughly the same area in northwest Nicaragua
where
bananas are grown. Most sugarcane is processed into
whitish
centrifugal sugar, the raw sugar of international
commerce. Some
plants further process the sugarcane into refined
granulated
sugar. Demand for sugar remained comparatively low until
the
United States-imposed embargo on Cuban sugar began in
1960.
Demand then soared, and sugar production tripled over in
the next
two decades. Like all other agricultural products, sugar
production was severely hit by the United States trade
embargo on
Nicaraguan products from 1985 to 1990. Production of raw
sugarcane stood at 2,300 tons in 1989.
In the early 1990s, the government attempted to
diversify
agriculture, but had limited results. Tobacco and sesame
are both
produced for export. The first African palm oil
plantations,
which were established in the Caribbean lowlands, began
production in 1990. Beans, corn, rice, and sorghum
continue to be
widely grown and consumed domestically.
Data as of December 1993
|
