another 16 Tons of Tobacco in Pinar del Rio gone

[El Presidente]

This is on top of the 30 tons lost to fire last week 

 

 

The intense rainfall recorded in Cuba since last Friday caused the loss of 16.55 tons of tobacco in Pinar del Río, the island's main tobacco province.  

The president of the Tabacuba Business Group, Marino Murillo Jorge, said that the municipality of San Juan y Martínez, where the best tobacco in the country is grown, is one of the most  affected by the rains . There they try to recover all the usable tobacco, he insisted. 

The official indicated that the peasants with the most losses were those belonging to this territory, which is part of the so-called tobacco massif. 

 

"The supervisors will have to intensify their performance in each affected plain and define the actions for recovery based on the availability of resources," said Jorge, quoted by the official website Cubadebate .

 

The newspaper explained that producers from the CCS Esteban Ajete in the Pinar del Río municipality of San Juan y Martínez, are trying to recover all usable resources to raise the tobacco houses knocked down by the wind and rain.

The main exportable crop of Pinar del Río was also affected last week by a powerful fire in a warehouse belonging to the Tobacco Collection and Processing Company, which caused the loss of 30 tons and 4,000 cujes. 

The situation seems to aggravate the tobacco crisis in the country, whose economy benefits from the export of Habanos and other cigars.

 

[Chibearsv]

What percent of normal harvest is 46.55 tons lost?

[SCgarman]

Large format Cohiba cigars will now retail for $500 per cigar due to unforseen circumstances. 🤪

[Islandboy]

I know firsthand how difficult farming is, even here in the U.S. The look on the farmer’s face in the 2nd photo kinda says it all, this has to be heartbreaking.

[Hemclas]

Feel so bad for the farmers

[El Presidente]

20 minutes ago, Chibearsv said:

What percent of normal harvest is 46.55 tons lost?

* I am sot sure how accurate the below is. 

 

 

 In 2019, crop production of tobacco in Cuba amounted to 61 thousand metric tons.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1079457/cuba-tobacco-production/#:~:text=In 2019%2C crop production of,registered in the previous year.

[Chibearsv]

If that’s accurate, then .08%, which doesn’t sound significant except for the poor farmers that are directly affected.  I feel sorry for them. I know farmers here buy crop insurance for such calamities but I’m guessing something like that isn’t available in Cuba. 

[El Presidente]

1 minute ago, therealrsr said:

I am thinking the same, but also wonder if is this enough damage and saving what they can to set up a repeat of '99 - '01 around the corner?

They had or trained enough rollers in 99-01 to manage 160M cigars.  They can't do 20% of that number today. 

[Rhinoww]

So if we were to guesstimate even 2-3% of overall tobacco harvest was destroyed, isn’t there quite a bit of extra leaf that is ready to roll that simply hasn’t been rolled due to Covid to more than make up any shortfall?

[El Presidente]

5 minutes ago, Rhinoww said:

So if we were to guesstimate even 2-3% of overall tobacco harvest was destroyed, isn’t there quite a bit of extra leaf that is ready to roll that simply hasn’t been rolled due to Covid to more than make up any shortfall?

a lot of that tobacco (60 metric ton) is cigarette tobacco. 

the 45 ton lost in the past 14 days is cigar tobacco and at least 30 ton largely wrapper. 

Say:  3 million cigars. 

[MeLlamoHabano]

3 minutes ago, Rhinoww said:

So if we were to guesstimate even 2-3% of overall tobacco harvest was destroyed, isn’t there quite a bit of extra leaf that is ready to roll that simply hasn’t been rolled due to Covid to more than make up any shortfall?

Good question, to piggy back on that for prez or whomever may know; is usable tobacco more the shortage reasoning or lack of rollers?

[El Presidente]

6 minutes ago, MeLlamoHabano said:

is usable tobacco more the shortage reasoning or lack of rollers?

1. shortage of quality wrapper for larger format cigars
2. lack of rollers. Some factories are still under  60% roller capacity and they can't find people to train. 

                                            * There is a flood  of young people leaving Cuba.

                                            *  Inflation is rife and a rollers wage doesn't make ends meet.

      3. Shortage of ready cash to pay for tobacco infrastructure (new and improvements to existing). 

      4. Shortage of ready cash to pay for production materials. 

[Rhinoww]

15 hours ago, El Presidente said:

a lot of that tobacco (60 metric ton) is cigarette tobacco. 

the 45 ton lost in the past 14 days is cigar tobacco and at least 30 ton largely wrapper. 

Say:  3 million cigars. 

An important distinction I had not considered. So that’s a huge bummer then. 

 

15 hours ago, El Presidente said:

1. shortage of quality wrapper for larger format cigars
2. lack of rollers. Some factories are still under  60% roller capacity and they can't find people to train. 

                                            * There is a flood  of young people leaving Cuba.

                                            *  Inflation is rife and a rollers wage doesn't make ends meet.

                                           

Any good news?

[Chas.Alpha]

The N1 2021 blends are pretty much spot on. Just sayin’... 😳

[Rhinoww]

Just now, Chas.Alpha said:

The N1 2021 blends are pretty much spot on. Just sayin’... 😳

Thank you. 
 

I can only keep up w my piss and moan posts for so long😂

[El Presidente]

1 minute ago, Rhinoww said:

Any good news?

.....it couldn't get any worse 

[Rhinoww]

Just now, El Presidente said:

.....it couldn't get any worse 

That’s what I thought about last august ….

[Chas.Alpha]

3 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

.....it couldn't get any worse 

Ummm, hurricane season has just begun around these parts... 😳

[Texwrangler]

I cringed when I read the speaker refer to the workers as ‘peasants’

[El Presidente]

6 minutes ago, Texwrangler said:

I cringed when I read the speaker refer to the workers as ‘peasants’

It is a cultural thing. 

In the west we call them..... "constituents" 

same  thing 

 

[Fugu]

Disheartening to see that. Pobrecitos!

49 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

In 2019, crop production of tobacco in Cuba amounted to 61 thousand metric tons.

This must be total tobacco crop. For cigars they usually try to achieve >25k tonnes (I think I remember reading the plan for 2022 was somewhere about 27 k, which they abandoned quickly when seedlings where lost. - From memory, I could be wrong, can’t look it up atm). 30 thousand would be an exceptional good crop these days. Vueltabajo would be less of course.

[El Presidente]

4 minutes ago, Fugu said:

Disheartening to see that. Pobrecitos!

This must be total tobacco crop. For cigars they usually try to achieve >25k tonnes (I think I remember reading the plan for 2022 was somewhere about 27 k, which they abandoned quickly when seedlings where lost. - From memory, I could be wrong, can’t look it up atm). 30 thousand would be an exceptional good crop these days. Vueltabajo would be less of course.

I think they were referring here to hectares planted. 

 

[yossie]

44 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

      3. Shortage of ready cash to pay for tobacco infrastructure (new and improvements to existing). 

      4. Shortage of ready cash to pay for production materials. 

Meanwhile, Habanos got their highest ? revenue.. 

[El Presidente]

1 minute ago, yossie said:

Meanwhile, Habanos got their highest ? revenue.. 

based on 2019-2020 production. 

Then came Covid & the collapse of tourism. 

[Fugu]

13 minutes ago, El Presidente said:

I think they were referring here to hectares planted. 

 

Yep, that’s right!

But I think, the crop tonnage is also around that figure I.e. roughly one T leaf (dried raw tobacco) per hectare, isn’t it?