Cuba's communist government says, it is liberalising the sale of sugar, after decades of subsidizing its price. It is the latest step in President Raul Castro's plan to reduce the state's role in the economy and encourage private enterprise. Cubans will still be able to buy a limited amount of sugar at a subsidized rate with their ration books, but these too are due to be gradually phased out. Cuba is a major sugar producer. The state newspaper Juventud Rebelde said sugar would “gradually” be freed from state control and sold in shops and supermarkets where prices are much higher, though it did not say how quickly this would happen. It said the measure was particularly necessary in the light of economic changes launched by President Castro last September.