By Jay Amberg Bloomberg Lifestyles. Bloomberg.com. Thu, 07 Sep 2000, 11:21am EDT
Pinar del Rio, Cuba, Sept. 7 -- In hopes of boosting its production of tobacco leaf used for premium cigars, Cuban agricultural officials and outside tobacco experts from Spain may have violated the basic tenant, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.''
New barns built with asphalt shingles instead of palm thatch have caused at least some of the February-March harvest to be infected by a mold, growers have reported.
As Havana's premium cigar factories began idling workers last winter at a time when the island's cigar production was usually in full swing, it became clear there was an acute shortage of prime tobacco wrapper, the large shade-grown leaves used on some of the most sought after and expensive
Cuban cigars.
The leaf shortages, still apparent this summer at factories like Havana's La Corona and Partagas, have been attributed to everything from bad weather to theft.
While nature and a hunger to supply product to Cuba's counterfeit cigar market have contributed to the leaf shortages, attempts to hastily modernize Cuba's tobacco cultivation and harvest practices could also be to blame.
Word out of Pinar del Rio province, the center for Cuba's cigar tobacco production, is that stockpiles of wrapper leaf (Capa) are dwindling and the February-March harvest, while good, didn't completely match expectations.
As a result, some Cuban tobacco and cigar experts predict the lack of supply will continue to slow factory production of large cigars such as Double Coronas, Churchills and the seemingly scarce Cuban Piramides.
Because Cuban cigar sales are the island's third largest producer of hard currency, behind tourism and sugar, it's difficult to get Cuban agricultural and tobacco officials to go on record defining the exact cause of the leaf shortages, or even admit there is one.
What seems clear is that some zealous government officials, seeking to boost tobacco production, attempted to alter traditional Cuban methods for curing harvested wrapper leaves.
Throughout Pinar del Rio province, 2.5 hours southwest of Havana, are small triangular shaped curing barns in the middle of lush tobacco fields.
These barns usually have thatched palm roofs and sides, and some are open at both ends. Inside, resting on dirt floors, are wooden poles that rise to the ceiling and extend horizontally.
On these poles, the harvested wrapper leaf is left to hang (in bunches called "hands'') and dry.
On the bigger tobacco farms, like those of Don Alejandro Robaina, the province's largest exporter of wrapper leaf to the Havana factories, the barns are larger and are similar to those found on farms in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Even the more modern looking curing barns have thatched roofs, to keep the elements out while allowing air to circulate through the barn, thus promoting drying of the tobacco leaves.
Private tobacco growers in Pinar del Rio (yes, there are private growers in Cuba) claim because a lot of the February- March harvest was cured in new barns built with asphalt shingles instead of palm thatch, the traditional air curing process was altered and much of the crop was infected with a
mold.
The mold, not the dreaded "Blue Mold'' that devastates crops in the field, developed and spread inside the barns because the asphalt roofs trapped both heat and humidity.
It's ironic that Cuba's new wrapper leaf plant, the Habano 2000 hybrid, was developed because of its resistance to crop killers like Blue Mold. Yet, the highly touted H2000 leaf was attacked by mold after it was harvested and infected in what's traditionally a safe haven, the curing barn.
Some Cuban tobacco experts claim about 20 percent of the 1999-2000 crop was ruined by the mold, though there are no official figures available.
Some cigar retailers in Havana said the asphalt shingled roof combined with the use of new heaters in the barns was expected to speed at drying and curing process.
"It's a problem, that's for sure, but I'm not sure that it's as bad as some people are making it out to be,'' said a major Havana cigar retailer who wants to remain anonymous. "It would be good propaganda for other cigar producing countries and enemies of Cuba to say we (the factories
and shops) are short of leaf and lacking good cigars, but that's an exaggeration.''
Recent visitors to Cuba have reported fairly good selections of larger cigars, but a Mexican-based Cuban cigar merchant noted there are lingering problems with the supply of leaf.
"The people who roll (cigars) for me in Cuba tell me that last winter's harvest was good but problems developed after the leaves were in the barns,'' said the cigar merchant, who has two shops in eastern Mexico. "I assume the problems had to do with some hiccups from modernization.''
While the extent of these problems will be difficult to pinpoint, it seems safe to say that while boosting premium cigar production through modern means could be good for the Cuban economy, Cuba's time-tested methods for producing some of the finest hand-made cigars on this planet are hanging in
the balance.
©2000 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved.
Related information
FROM CUBA / Prime Tobacco Wrapper Leaf Scarce / UPECI - Cuba News / Noticias - CubaNet News
 Cooperativas Agrícolas Independientes de Cuba
| 