The Hemisphere: Emperor of Sugar

The world's biggest sugar operator is a little known Havana trader named Julio Lobo. A short, imperious man of 54, Lobo has more to do than anybody else with determining the world price of sugar. He handles about half the entire Cuban crop, at least a fourth of the Puerto Rican and Philippine crops, owns or controls up to 30 Cuban sugar mills, and dominates the market everywhere. "I am the market," he says. "I buy and sell sugar any time, day or night." Last week, as Cuba's 5,000,000-ton sugar harvest rolled toward the market, Lobo operated right around the clock,...

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