There are NO cigarettes on the island for the locals

[JohnnyO]

For quite some time I have noticed that there are hardly any cigarettes in the Duty Free or in the airport in general in T3. Yes the pricey-er Cohibas and Dunhills are there but not the HUp and Popular that the locals like. This has been going on for months, I want to say as far back as November. I started talking to family and friends about this phenomenon as I did not see any in the stores or street vendors hustling them as they had in the past. There was no sound explanation, just frustration with the locals when I brought up the subject. All told me they just aren't available anywhere, maybe on Facebook or other internet sites by someone who is holding out for the ultimate price. Also that the bodega cigars and the Criollos non-filtered cigarettes that they give through the ration card have been MIA for months as well. Finally, if you could resolve a pack of 20 it could be as much as 1500 CUP ($4.40 USD) or $44 a carton. Most don't make that in a month. I have 2 theories as to the reasons why this is happening. Any ideas? John

[Havanaaddict]

Maybe because they’re using every bit of the tobacco to stuff into any Cigar they can. The profit margin what they’re charging for cigars now has got to be way over what they make in scraps for cigarettes.🤔

[SCgarman]

3 hours ago, Havanaaddict said:

Maybe because they’re using every bit of the tobacco to stuff into any Cigar they can. The profit margin what they’re charging for cigars now has got to be way over what they make in scraps for cigarettes.🤔

Someone correct me if wrong, but isn't tobacco destined for cigarette manufacture of low grade and not up to par with premium leaves for cigars? 

[El Presidente]

2022 article. Yield has continued to decrease year on year. It may have turned around slightly this year 24/25  but too early to tell. 

"The impact would mainly be on domestic consumers, as the country has enough tobacco in store to produce export cigars for two years, added Caseres".

Cuban tobacco yield up in smoke amid fertilizer shortages

Viñales (Cuba) (AFP) – Yurisniel Cabrera, 35, is a fourth-generation tobacco farmer, eking out a meager living from the leaves used to make Cuba's fabled cigars.

Issued on: 26/02/2022 - 02:48Modified: 26/02/2022 - 02:46

3 min

 

Clients can fork out more than $10 for a single cigar, but for his months of labor, Cabrera earned only a few hundred US dollars from last year's harvest.

This year, the outlook is even bleaker.

Sanctions-stricken and facing its worst economic crisis in nearly three decades, Cuba is running low on fertilizers and pesticides.

The harvest "is not of a good enough quality," Cabrera sighed as he showed AFP around his crop amid the rounded hills dubbed mogotes that dot the fertile Vinales valley in western Cuba.

 

 

"It lacked fertilizer and pesticide," he said as he slipped a pile of leaves draped over his arm onto a "cuje," the wooden lathe used to dry the harvest in a rustic, wooden "tobacco house."

 

Under sanctions and facing its worst economic crisis in nearly three decades, Cuba is running short on fertilizer and pesticide for its crucial tobacco harvest YAMIL LAGE AFP

Like other farmers in Pinar del Rio province, where 65 percent of Cuba's tobacco is produced, Cabrera sells 95 percent of his yield to the Tabacuba state agency.

What remains is for private use.

State sets the price

In Cuba, the government provides pesticides and fertilizers to state-run cooperatives, and sets the price at which farmers can obtain them.

Tabacuba determines the price paid for the farmers' tobacco, based on the quality of the leaves.

 

The leaves are placed on wooden lathes to dry in a rustic, wooden 'tobacco house' YAMIL LAGE AFP

"I have to buy all the product from them (the authorities)," explained farmer Livan Aguiar, 49, from the settlement of San Juan and Martinez, near Vinales.

"They give me the fertilizer, the fungicide... at the end of the harvest they charge me for everything," he said while cutting tobacco on the land he uses on a state usufruct.

Like Cabrera, Aguiar is concerned about the impact the lack of fertilizer will have on his yield and income this season.

Tabacuba executive Pavel Noe Caseres explained that importing agricultural chemicals had been "complicated" this season, due to logistical bottlenecks caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and ongoing US sanctions.

 

Cuba's tobacco harvest has fallen from 32,000 tons in 2017 to 25,800 in 2020 and will likely reach only 22,000 tons this season YAMIL LAGE AFP

The harvest has fallen from 32,000 tons in 2017 to 25,800 in 2020 and will likely reach only 22,000 tons this season, he said.

The impact would mainly be on domestic consumers, as the country has enough tobacco in store to produce export cigars for two years, added Caseres.

Tobacco is Cuba's main agricultural export.

Cabrera and his family sowed 25,000 plants for the season that started last October and ends in May.

 

The state Tabacuba agency buys all the tobacco produced in the country YAMIL LAGE AFP

From it, he expects to get little over 550 kilograms (about 1,200 pounds) of tobacco leaf -- almost half of last year's yield.

In 2021, he made just over 80,000 pesos -- about $3,320 at the official exchange rate but only about $800 on the black market where most Cuban transactions take place.

This year it will be even less. So Cabrera and his family will look to the corn and other foods they grow on the side for survival.

Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him, Cabrera lovingly cures the tobacco leaves, once dried, in a special concoction that includes guava leaf, honey and rum mixed into water.

It is a long process, requiring mastery, for which he reaps little financial reward.

[Andy04]

3 hours ago, SCgarman said:

Someone correct me if wrong, but isn't tobacco destined for cigarette manufacture of low grade and not up to par with premium leaves for cigars? 

The curing process for cigarette tobacco is usually either fire curing or flue curing, whereas tobacco destined for a cigar should be air cured.

Fire and flue curing reduced nicotine content and rapidly breaks down sugars in the tobacco.

I wouldn't say that tobacco destined for cigarettes is of a lower quality, but rather that smaller leaves can be used (meaning that the suckers from the plants don't need to be removed during growing), and the entire plant (including stalk, leaves and veins) will be used. 

 

[Fugu]

Can't pay their Brazilian partners?

[CaptainQuintero]

8 hours ago, SCgarman said:

Someone correct me if wrong, but isn't tobacco destined for cigarette manufacture of low grade and not up to par with premium leaves for cigars? 

 Is it straying into Nicotiana Tabacum V Nicotiana Rustica stuff? I'm not sure what's used for low end Cuban cigarettes. I know the grow fields aren't interchangeable between cigar and cigarette plants there but maybe with the last few years of issues there's issues arising with manufacturing sector cross over?

[JohnnyO]

16 hours ago, SCgarman said:

Someone correct me if wrong, but isn't tobacco destined for cigarette manufacture of low grade and not up to par with premium leaves for cigars? 

The Popular, Criollos are the lower end leaf. However the Cohiba, H. Upmann are supposedly from the leftover scraps. There is no pipe tobacco (Partagas, HdM) anymore and machine made cigars aren't being made like in the past. So they shouldn't have any use for the scraps, right? John 

[Fugu]

Seems a mix of disorganization/incapability, calamities (damaging of the Brascuba Mariel facility in November), corruption and abuse. Also read the comments and between the lines…
In a nutshell, main cause not being shortages in tobacco, and those problems have been going on for quite a few years, while only heavily culminating now.

Two recent articles (the first of which incl. footage with pics of the damaged factory):
http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2025/01/28/deficit-de-materias-primas-y-desastres-naturales-afectaron-produccion-de-cigarrillos-en-cuba-durante-2024/

https://www.directoriocubano.info/panorama/actualizan-sobre-produccion-de-cigarros-en-cuba-precios-actuales-y-perspectivas/

“Durante los primeros meses de 2024, Brascuba enfrentó problemas de producción debido a la falta de materiales esenciales, aunque no de tabaco.”

“Asimismo, el reporte hace referencia a que si bien el consumidor paga en moneda nacional, estas producciones requieren divisas debido a su condición de empresa mixta.”
["Also, the report refers to the fact that while the consumer pays in national currency, these productions require foreign exchange due to their status as a joint venture."]

[JohnnyO]

Let me pull the old hurricane out of the hat trick, those schlamiels fall for it every time. 5 factories, one is damaged so you should be producing at 80%. But really you're at 100% for the locals because the BrasCuba factory is for the higher end Cohibas, Rothman, Dunhill. Everything they are saying could have a small percentage of truth to it but here is my take:

• They have been selling raw materials to China, India, Russia, Vietnam or whoever pays for quite some time
• The BrasCuba excuse of not having packaging materials simply means Cuba's "I no pay" policy is alive and well. It gives them more reason to dump the product abroad
• If they are going to come back to production, they are drying up the market to see the true value of what consumers are willing to pay and come out with pricier packs.