Record Tobacco Harvest in Las Tunas, Cuba

Source from:  By Hernan Bosch (Cuban News Agency) 03/20/2006

Las Tunas, Cuba, Mar 18.- After having strung more than 272,000 poles with tobacco leaves, four percent above production targets, it has been estimated that growers in eastern Las Tunas province will set a new record during the current tobacco-leaf harvest. The figure represents nearly a third of the estimated total harvest, which will soon enter its peak stage and should be wrapped up by the end of April. Las Tunas has an overall area of over 1,700 hectares of tobacco fields. Romilio Lopez, assistant director of the Tobacco Company in Las Tunas, told the CNA news service that some 34,000 quintals of the leaf (over 1,500 tons) are expected to be harvested in Las Tunas this year, thus surpassing the local production record set in 2001. Despite their lack of experience in the growth of this delicate crop, the tobacco farmers of Las Tunas joined in the nationwide effort to raise tobacco production, and, since 2001, they have planted at least 1,340 hectares each year. At the same time, Las Tunas saw an increase in the production of cigars for domestic consumption, turning out 13 million units in 2005. This year they plan to make more than 16 million. Also a cigar factory located in the northern municipality of Puerto Padre manufactured for the first time in its history a half million cigars for export last year. They hope to produce 2 million units for export by the end of 2006. The cigar-manufacturing sector has historically played a lead role in the Cuban economy. Currently the island has a capacity to make more than 160 million cigars destined for export and 190 million for domestic consumption. Enditem