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Modernize or Die. Plowing back a big slice of his profits into better mills, Lobo wants to modernize the industry, step up production, sell sugar on the open market without quotas or controls. Other sugar-men fear that heavier production would force prices down. But Lobo argues that the industry should find new uses for sugar, thus attract new industry into Cuba's one-commodity economy. Thanks largely to his campaign, several plants are now being built in Cuba to produce such sugar byproducts as wallboard, newsprint and plastics.
He also has high hopes of increasing worldwide sugar consumption. The U.S. and most of Europe consume an average 100 Ibs. of sugar per capita yearly, while underdeveloped countries such as India consume as little as 13 Ibs. Lobo sees the world as a huge sugar bowl waiting to be filled, but he knows that without change Cuba's sugar industry cannot help fill it properly. Cuba's share of production has slipped from 22% of the market in 1925 to only 14% today, is bound to keep slipping as Cuba loses its markets to more modern producers. Says Lobo: "Cuba must modernize or die."