Cuba dismisses the effects on tobacco production due to the reduction of areas
HAVANA, Feb. 26th Directors of the Cuban tobacco industry denied this Friday that the 10% reduction in the cultivable area of the current 2021-2022 campaign affects the export of twisted tobacco or national consumption.
During a tour for international media through a covered tobacco field -with cloth- in the Artemisa province (52 kilometers from Havana), the official of the business group of the plant (Tabacuba), Pavel Noa, declared that “the country has enough” stored tobacco.
The decision to reduce planting by 2,450 hectares from the 25,000 initially planned in October, when the current harvest began, responded to the lack of inputs such as fertilizers and the “reintensification of the blockade (embargo)”.
The current season should end in the months of May and June, although the peak of the harvest corresponds to February and March, explained Noa.
The Tabacuba business group directs the tobacco activity from agricultural production, pre-industry and industrial production to marketing, logistics and development.
The end of that chain is the commercialization of Cuban tobacco products, which includes premium (hand-rolled) tobacco, machine-rolled tobacco, and cigarettes, all manufactured under a series of brands and formats.
The largest producing area in the country is in the western province of Pinar del Río, where covered tobacco -with cloth- is also planted, which provides the layers for the production of the famous Havana cigars.
The tobacco industry is the fourth sector that contributes the most income to Cuba’s gross domestic product, and export sales reached 507 million dollars in 2020, according to data from the Spanish-Cuban company Habanos, which markets exclusive cigar brands. of the Caribbean country.
The tobacco harvest went from 32,000 tons in 2017 to 25,800 in 2020, according to official data.
The sector employs about 200,000 workers on the island, rising to 250,000 at the peak of the harvest.
