Cuba increases leaf production despite drought

This season’s tobacco harvest in Vueltabajo, Cuba’s main leaf-production region, increased by 3,400 tonnes over that of last year despite a nationwide drought, according to an Indo-Asian News Agency story citing the Communist Party daily, Granma.

Industry leaders in Vueltabajo, Pinar del Rio, were quoted as saying that 16,204 tonnes of tobacco had been harvested so far and that the total might increase by 100 tonnes.

With about 16,000 ha under cultivation, the 2014-2015 production level signalled the beginning of the recovery of tobacco production in Cuba, Granma reported.

But it acknowledged that the season had been impacted by the country’s worst drought in 115 years.

Meanwhile, an additional 1,000 ha are expected to be planted to tobacco for the 2015-2016 season.

The tobacco sector is Cuba’s fourth-largest revenue generator and employs roughly 150,000 people on a regular basis, though the workforce can swell to 250,000 at the peak of the harvest.