By Jay Amberg Bloomberg.com. Wed, 23 Aug 2000
Havana, Aug. 15 -- The fertile farmland of Pinar del Rio province in southwest Cuba will serve as the backdrop for island's new cigar festival and trade show scheduled for Dec. 14- 17, according to Radio Havana.
The Pinar del Rio Tobacco Festival isn't to be confused with the larger annual Habanos SA cigar festival and trade show to take place Feb. 19-23 in Havana.
At the December festival, three simultaneous events will be held including an international scientific and technical workshop on the production of cigar tobacco.
The workshop will include discussions about the unique microclimate and soil in Pinar del Rio, one of the world's great tobacco growing regions.
Along with the workshops, the festival will feature a trade fair presenting cigar-related products and tobacco processing equipment. During the festival, tours of tobacco farms and a local cigar factory will offered.
According to Habanos SA, Cuba's global marketer and distributor of its cigars, the purpose of the festival is to contribute to the commercial and scientific exchange of technical information about cigar tobacco in Central America and the Caribbean region.
Expected to participate in the workshops are tobacco research specialists, tobacco farmers and international business executives involved in the processing of cigar tobacco and the marketing and sales of premium cigars.
One of the farms on the tour schedule is Vega Robaina, the plantation where legendary tobacco farmer Don Alejandro Robaina grows what's arguably some of the best cigar wrapper in the world.
Cigar wrapper is the fragile leaf used on hand-made premium cigars. Usually grown under tenting to diffuse direct sunlight and produce thin and pliable leaves, wrapper is costly to grow and prone to air-borne diseases such as blue mold.
About 30 percent of the annual wrapper leaf exported to the Havana cigar factories comes from Robaina's farms in the Macizo de San Luis section of Pinar del Rio province.
Robaina has been honored for his contribution to Cuba's cigar industry by having a brand of cigar, Vegas Robaina, named in his honor.
He was also presented with a car by Cuban President Fidel Castro, who acknowledged his expertise in the cultivation of tobacco used in the production of Cuba's best hand-made cigars.
Pinar del Rio was chosen as the festival site because about 70 percent of the island's prime tobacco crop is grown there.
Tobacco ranks third behind tourism and sugar cane as Cuba's main source of hard currency.
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