Cuban Tobacco Agribusiness Impacts World Experts

Source from:  Prensa Latina (cu)  02/28/2014

Cuban tobacco agribusiness sector made an impact on foreign experts who attend the 16th Habano Festival, the largest event of Premium cigars in the world.

A visit to tobacco plantations in this island keep the corridors buzzing at the Convention Center in Havana, venue of the Festival open on February 24 and scheduled to close on Friday the 28th.

Tobacco plantations were visited by more than 1500 participants from 80 countries in the municipalities of San Juan and Martinez and San Luis, in the western Pinar del Rio province.

That territory is also known as Vueltabajo, the most significant in the production of the highest quality tobacco, from which habanos are made.

Delegates could talk with farm owners, who develop this crop as a family business on which they put all their experience for the delight of cigar smokers over the world.

Prensa Latina reporters visited Finca Valle and the Credit and Services Cooperative "Tomas Valdes" of San Juan and Martinez, where harvester Francisco Jose Prieto collects 990 metric hundredweight per 13.4 hectares.

The route also moved participants to the barns where the leafs are selected and stripped, two processes previous to the sending of bales to the factories, where the final step to the habano or cigar Premium is hand-rolled for export.

The tour ended in the Vinales Valley, a tourist paradise for its natural and historical values which most travellers want to visit when arriving in Cuba. Enditem