THE CUBA REVIEW 



Cuban Commercial Matters 



Tractors Used in Cuba for Sugar 

 Cultivation 



Tractors used in Cuba are employed 

 mostly in connection with the production 

 of sugar cane. There are some high- 

 power machines used for railway roadbed 

 grading, and the small general-farming class 

 near the larger towns of Habana Province 

 are purchasers of lighter machines for gen- 

 eral farm purposes. A few of the smaller 

 tractors are sold for preparing pineapple 

 and vegetable lands in the Isle of Pines — 

 usually to Americans, and frequently to 

 groups of farmers, who purchase the ma- 

 chine on a cooperative basis. Garden cul- 

 tivators are not sold. Truck gardening 

 around Habana has been, until recently, 

 exclusively in the hands of Chinese farm- 

 ers and is still characteristically a Chinese 

 industry. In other parts of the island 

 there are no truck farms, and in the in- 

 terior towns garden vegetables are, as a 

 rule, available only when imported. 



Most of the companies selling tractors 

 in Cuba are represented by the chief ma- 

 chinery houses or by general importing and 

 exporting houses. Only one manufacturer 

 has a representative in Cuba who devotes 

 himself exclusively to sale of the com- 

 pany's products and equipment for such 

 products. Several American firms have 

 given their representation to local com- 

 panies, which have bought a few machines 

 but have not had the facilities for properly 

 advertising the goods, the mechanics to in- 

 struct buyers in their use, nor the spare 

 parts to repair breakage quickly. Such 

 representations have failed, with prejudice 

 to machines which under other circum- 

 stances should have had success. 



European Competition 



All the manufacturers prominently rep- 

 resented are Americans. A few French, 

 German, and British lines (two French 

 tractors and one of each of the others) 

 were imported shortly before the economic 

 crisis, but no serious competition with 

 American manufacturers developed, and 

 since the crisis sales bv all corppanies have 

 been at a very low ebb. During the first 

 11 months of 1Q21, only 12 farm tractors, 

 valued at $24,951, were exported to Cuba 



from the United States. Opinions differ as 

 to the possibility of competition from Eu- 

 rope in normal times. The criticisms of 

 European machines are as a rule that they 

 are not fitted to Cuban conditions of work 

 or are too expensive. On large plantations 

 results have been obtained with the English 

 Fowler steam plow, which is a V-shaped 

 plow, drawn back and forth across the 

 field by means of cables. The difference in 

 tariff rates is not considered to be a serious 

 hindrance to the sale of European tractors. 



Market Outlook 



Very few sales of tractors are being 

 made at the present time and a renewal 

 of sales in this, as in all other lines of 

 trade, will be determined by the return 

 of prosperity to the sugar industry. The 

 advantage of plowing with tractors is 

 greatest when the time element is an im- 

 portant factor. With the high prices of the 

 war years, time became the leading ele- 

 ment in bringing cane lands into bearing. 

 The tractor market became so active that 

 the supply could not meet the demand. 

 Not only big operators but farmers cul- 

 tivating small areas bought tractors freely 

 and were glad to pay cash for them. When 

 the crash came there were large numbers 

 of orders outstanding, stipulating cash on 

 delivery. The number of machines deliv- 

 ered on this basis since the crisis is very 

 small. One company had 330 cash orders 

 booked at the end of the boom. It has 

 delivered, on the agreed cash basis, only 

 eight of these. 



Very little new planting of cane is being 

 done at present, and therefore slower 

 methods of preparing the soil are not a 

 disadvantage. In addition, oxen and man- 

 ual labor are now very cheap. Many who 

 had bought tractors are anxious to sell 

 them secondhand and practically all the 

 large dealers are already heavily stocked 

 with hold-over machines. These circum- 

 stances will delay the purchase of tractors 

 abroad even after purchases in Cuba begin 

 to pick up. There are some representatives 

 of tractor manufacturers who are frankly 

 doubtful whether the tractor has yet 

 proved itself under normal Cuban condi- 

 tions. If quick results were needed in 



