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Key to Cuba tobacco harvest is patience
Mon Feb 23. By LISA J. ADAMS,
Associated Press Writer .
PINAR DEL RIO Cuba - Adela Pita Oliva's
hands move so fast they are almost invisible
as she deftly weaves a long needle attached
to twine through tobacco leave stems, stringing
lush green bunches along wooden poles to
be later hoisted to the rafters overhead.
From dawn to dusk each day, Pita, 44, works
in a curing shed of the Rio Feo tobacco
plantation in Pinar del Rio, among thousands
of workers laboring to harvest leaves for
the world's finest cigars.
Under a punishing tropical sun in the fields
outside, men and women in rubber boots,
bandannas and straw hats pluck broad, flat
leaves from neat rows and pile them carefully
into aluminum-sided carts to be hauled to
the shed by slow-moving oxen.
The late-winter/early-spring harvest in
Cuba's western tobacco-growing region of
Pinar del Rio is an important annual event.
Tobacco is the communist-run island's third-largest
export - producing an average of 150 million
hand-rolled cigars worth about $240 million
a year - and is recognized worldwide for
its quality. Cuba is to cigars as Russia
is to caviar, Japan is to sushi, France
is to champagne.
But this year's harvest is especially important.
Fed by good seeds, rich soil, and growth-favoring
humidity, there is a fertile optimism that
production levels will normalize after extensive
storm damage lowered tobacco yields a year
ago.
Hurricanes Isidore and Lili damaged or
destroyed 10,000 of more than 14,500 curing
houses for drying tobacco in fall 2002.
Habanos S.A., the company that markets Cuban
cigars abroad, said most buildings housing
the harvested tobacco were unaffected.
But the Communist Party newspaper Granma
reported in February 2003 that the hurricanes
"destroyed the industry's infrastructure
and wiped out the seed nurseries, which
forced everyone to start again from zero."
Cuba's tobacco crop averages about 40,370
tons annually.
At the Rio Feo plantation, 2003 production
was 3 tons less than the year before, said
Adela Pita's cousin, plantation supervisor
Juana Pita.
Down the road in San Luis, 84-year-old
Alejandro Robaina - Cuba's unofficial tobacco
ambassador to the world - smokes happily
on a fat cigar as he rocks on his front
porch next to already-harvested tobacco
fields.
Robaina has an optimism about tobacco growing
that is as robust as the stogie balanced
confidently between his middle and index
fingers. The key to any harvest is not just
weather or good growing conditions, but
"love of tobacco, and patience,"
he says.
Tobacco must be planted during a certain
phase of the moon, tended to by hand, not
machines, and handled delicately so precious
leaves are not bent or torn, Robaina and
Pita explain.
"You can't wear gloves or have long
fingernails, because they will damage the
leaves," Pita said.
Robaina's word is respected in Cuba, where
for decades he has been king of the island's
tobacco growers, traveling around the globe
to promote the important cash crop.
There is even a cigar brand that was created
in Robaina's honor - Vegas Robaina - and
last year he was guest of honor at Havana's
annual international cigar festival.
This year's sixth annual Habano Festival
opens Monday night and ends Friday. As many
as 600 people from nearly 50 countries attend
the festival to visit plantations, taste
new products and buy the famous smokes.
Participants also will pay $500 per person
for an elegant dinner traditionally attended
by President Fidel Castro (news - web sites),
who first appeared on the world stage as
a cigar-smoking revolutionary in military
fatigues. Castro gave up smoking decades
ago, but still champions the product.
Tobacco workers hold their own party after
the last leaves are finally hung to dry
in the wood and zinc curing houses dotting
Pinar del Rio's green landscape.
Until then, though, much work must be done.
At the Rio Feo plantation, the Pita cousins
and nine other workers labor eight to 10
hours, six to seven days a week to reach
quotas.
"We have to make a strong effort,
work with all our strength for good results,"
said Pita Oliva. "That's what we're
fighting for."
Knee injury sidelines US forward for
Cuban trip
COLORADO SPRINGS, United States, 23 (AFP)
- DeLisha Milton-Jones, a forward who was
named to the US Olympic women's basketball
squad, has suffered a torn right anterior
cruciate knee ligament, USA Basketball announced.
The injury took place Sunday in Jacksonville,
Florida, where the US women were training
before departing Monday for Cuba and a three-game
exhibition series there against the hosts,
reigning Pan American Games champions.
Milton-Jones, who averaged 4.5 points and
2.5 rebounds a game in the 2000 Olympics,
missed the trip and was expected to travel
to Los Angeles for further evaluation.
"I'm going to stay positive. I'm not
going to be pessimistic," Milton-Jones
said. "I'm planning on getting this
taken care of as soon as possible so that
I can get back on the court this summer.
"I worked too long and hard not to
be a part of this team and I'm going to
work even harder to come back."
Milton-Jones was among nine women named
to the US squad. Four newcomers are vying
for spots on the team and all might get
their chance if Milton-Jones is unable to
recover in time for August's Athens Olympics.
"I don't think there's any doubt that
losing DeLisha right before going to Cuba
is a tough blow for this team," US
coach Van Chancellor said. "She has
been excellent in this training camp. She
has shown tremendous enthusiasm and hustle."
Speedboat Smuggles 13 Cubans Into U.S.
MARATHON, Fla., 22 - Thirteen Cuban migrants
were picked up by U.S. Border Patrol agents
after being smuggled into the Florida Keys
aboard a speedboat, an official said.
Members of the group said they left from
Cuba on Friday night, and the boat left
them on Duck Key, about 90 miles southwest
of Miami, around 3 a.m. Saturday, Border
Patrol supervisor Kerry Heck said.
The group had made it to shore by the time
they were spotted, and will therefore likely
be allowed to stay in the country.
When border agents arrived, the boat was
gone, and the group - which included 11
adults, a 3-year-old girl and a 6-year-old
boy - gave no information about their smugglers.
Heck said the group would be taken to a
Border Patrol office, then to the Krome
detention center in Miami before they are
released. All of them said they have family
members in Florida, who will pick them up
when they are released.
Under the "wet foot, dry foot"
policy, Cubans who reach U.S. shores are
generally permitted to stay, while those
caught at sea are usually taken back.
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