It is “the lowest production in history” in the province, admit the directors of Acopio
14ymedio, Havana, 30 May 2024 — The tobacco industry in Sancti Spíritus once again fell below mediocrity. Of the sol en palo [sun grown] tobacco – which is used to make cigarros – only 351 tons were collected, 67% of the plan, while the tapado [shade grown] tobacco, which is used to make puros, is expected to collect 315 tons. The most optimistic estimate of compliance with the plan, according to the State management company Acopio is 87%, and it is not likely that will be achieved.
This is “the lowest production in the history of Sancti Spíritus,” Isidro Hernández, director of Tobacco Collection and Processing in the province, says, without ambiguity. Gone are the times when the province – with a tobacco tradition due to the high number of Canary Islanders who settled there during the colonial era – was, along with Villa Clara, the second largest tobacco producing power in the country, after Pinar del Río.
Hernández regrets that the total estimated harvest – about 666 tons between shaded and sun grown – represents 20% less than what was harvested last year. Of the latter, he details, there are 202,987 cujes – the rod on which the leaves are dried – and of the former, 658,500. The province, he adds, has not met the plan targets for four years.
The planting campaign had started badly: it was barely 49% complete
The planting campaign had started badly and was barely 49% complete. According to the official press, which could not hide the disappointment with the figures, the main causes of the debacle were the lack of fuel to carry out the planting and “that many producers did not plant because the crop is not profitable.”
The most serious factor is that, of the entire harvest of shaded tobacco, only 104 tons have sufficient quality to make cigars for export, when they should have delivered 315 tons. The Sancti Spiritus leaf is used as a wrapper for cigars, o
