By Mark Johnson. The
Charlotte Observer.Posted at 1:13 a.m. EST Thursday, December 14, 2000
HAVANA -- Tommy Bunn is trying to sell tobacco to Cuba, a nation known for
the world's finest cigars. That suggests he's either an astounding salesman or a
glutton for rejection.
The quest by Bunn, Raleigh-based executive vice president of the Leaf
Tobacco Exporters Association, makes sense, though, for both an industry hungry
for export markets and a nation eager for more tourists.
The obstacles lie between governments instead of among consumers.
"It's something that is on the horizon," Bunn said.
Cuba and North Carolina likely are the two places in the world best known
for their tobacco, a message highlighted by Bunn and N.C. Sen. Allen Wellons,
D-Johnston, two members of a 22-member trade mission this week organized by the
N.C. Department of Agriculture.
"We believe we grow the best cigarette tobacco in the world,"
Wellons told Cuban officials, trying to warm up a meeting Monday after the North
Carolinians received a morning-long scolding over the U.S. embargo. "And
you grow the best cigar tobacco in the world. That is one thing we can agree on."
The distinction between the two crops is what makes a tobacco sales job less
far-fetched. The two types of tobacco are as different as the ultimate product -
expensive, hand-rolled Havanas vs. machine-churned, less expensive Winstons.
Cuban cigar tobacco is thinner, fermented and won't grow in North Carolina.
The flue-cured Tar Heel tobacco is thicker, milder and can't be raised on
Fidel Castro's island nation because of the soil and climate.
In a meeting this week with top officials of the government-controlled
Habanos tobacco company, Bunn and Wellons said they first heard the Communist
Party line, a refusal to deal with the United States. But then the refusal
weakened.
"There may be some interest in the future when the embargo is lifted,"
said Viviano Garcia, trade policy specialist with the ministry of foreign trade.
The Cubans are angry that recent congressional legislation, originally
intended to exempt agricultural products from the 37-year-old embargo,
ultimately included impractical financing restrictions and a one-way trade
limit.
Exporting foods to Cuba is allowed. Importing goods from there is not.
"The crucial exchange was getting the Cuban officials to acknowledge
they needed our cigarette tobacco," said Wellons, a tobacco farmer, adding
that any trade opportunities will emerge in the future.
American cigarettes sell as premium-grade smokes around the globe.
"(U.S. tobacco) is desired worldwide," Peter Burr of the U.S.
Foreign Agriculture Service said in a recent interview. "It's considered
the best."
The Cubans could make their own high-grade cigarettes using N.C. tobacco.
"The question you ask is, can their population afford cigarettes with
premium-style tobacco in them?" said Blake Brown, an agricultural economist
specializing in tobacco at N.C. State University.
If it's not practical to produce a Cuban Marlboro, the government tobacco
company could blend the Tar Heel leaf with its own to make a medium-grade
cigarette, milder and higher quality than the traditional domestic brand, the
N.C. officials said.
Right now, Habanos can't afford to refit a production line for a new
cigarette until there is demand for it, Bunn said
One quick source of demand would be an increase in American tourists, which
would require an easing of the U.S. embargo's ban on tourism.
Not only might tourists buy the new cigarettes, but Cubans' income also
probably would rise with the boom in tourism, allowing them to buy more
expensive smokes.
Would Cubans change their taste in cigarettes to buy such a product? In
response, Bunn said he had never heard of 12-year-old rum before coming to Cuba.
"The difference between that and the stuff that's fresh made is
significant," he said. "I can adjust my taste."
While Cuba is not a huge market for any crop - sort of an offshore
Pennsylvania in population - tobacco exporters are eagerly seeking new
destinations. Domestically, the industry has taken a political, legal and
financial beating in the past two years through the national tobacco settlement
between cigarette companies and the states and continuing controversies over
health.
More exports would counter the domestic stagnation in cigarette sales and
raise tobacco production, which is good news on tobacco farms.
"If we can find some way to expand trade, it helps our farmers,"
the agriculture service's Burr said.
Cuban officials hope pressure from businesses and farm groups, such as the
N.C. group, will help counter the pro-embargo influence of U.S. Sen. Jesse
Helms, R-N.C., and anti-Castro Cubans in Miami, said William White, director in
Cuba for CDC, a British financial group that handles international trade.
For now, the Cubans remain miffed and, at least in comments to the N.C.
farmers, a tiny bit remorseful, according to Marcos Nieto, negotiating director
for the state-run food industry.
"It is said that, because of the (trade) restrictions," Nieto
said, "Americans cannot smoke the best cigars in the world."
Reach Mark Johnson at (704) 358-5941 or mjohnson@charlotteobserver.com. | 