Havana/If there is an industry that is taken care of in Cuba is that of tobacco, not in vain One of the few lucrative In the middle of the generalized productive debacle. It shows it again an extensive report Posted in the official press Dedicated to the use of tip technology in Sancti Spíritus to produce leaves of the highest quality.
“The green miracle no longer depends only on the capricious rain or the prayers to the almanac: now the science, innovation and will of those who sow they dictate a different course for a crop that refuses to be passed,” says the note of Cubadebatewith the usual vocabulary to raise a job to the category of heroic. They promote a “development program for the intensive production of the cane tobacco lay different official media.
The initiative, they say, “already adds about 20 producers”, to which they are provided with all the “scientific-technical advances necessary to obtain high quality layers destined for export.” The process goes from seed planting to healing, in steps detailed by the development director of the Collection and Tobacco Business, Geisa Calero de la Paz. The official newspaper mentions the “magnitude of the investment” without specifying the money destined for it.
The official newspaper mentions the “magnitude of the investment” without specifying the money destined for it
To begin with, “each producer receives two technified structures with fertirriego systems that guarantee high quality seedlings, which is reversed in stronger plants and higher performance leaves in the field,” he explained. Then there is the use of irrigation located with photovoltaic energy and, finally, “six producer -controlled cure houses, equipped with technology capable of regulating the internal microclimate.” This, says Calero de la Paz, “reduces the drying time by half and decreases dependence on weather conditions.”
Until now, says the official, 50% of the hectares of tobacco in the province of Sancti Spíritus is governed by this program, but they wait for “future campaigns” to have 100% and 40 beneficiary producers.
Attentions with these are not limited to technical means, but also to salary. Thus, one of the women used in the tobacco chosen interviewed by Cubadebate It presumes to win, with long days, a salary of more than 20,000 pesos per month. While the informal change does not exceed 50 dollars, it is almost three times more the average salary of any Cuban, than It does not reach 7,000. Therefore, the newspaper exalizes that it is a figure “that in other sectors would be unthinkable.”
Another young veguero, 30, said that “although covered tobacco is more demanding, it is also more rewarding: the yields multiply, prices rise and, above all, the sheet is destined to a market where the demand is paid with recognition”, highlighting the primary objective of raising the quality of the product: the exterior.
The joy and praise shown by the spirit employees portrayed in Cubadebate they contrast with the criticisms less than a month ago they expressed Pinar del Río Guajirosthat regretted the “dead end” to which Tabacuba had to refuse to update the prices that tobacco buys.
“Although covered tobacco is more demanding, it is also more rewarding: yields multiply,”
Veguero Alfredo Pérez remembered how the Hurricane Ian It destroyed, in September 2022, most of the tobacco infrastructure, 90% of the houses of cure. In San Juan and Martínez, he told in an interview to the newspaper The country Michel Alejandro Valdés Rabelo, General Director of the State Company of Collection and Benefit of Tabacco Hermanos Saíz, “of the 1,765 houses of priest then, were standing 22”. What he did not explain is that the Guajiros had to pay the investment at a good price, believing that the sale of the product would serve to square the accounts, when none of this happened.
Days before these criticisms, the Ministry of Agriculture He congratulated himself of the success of the 2024-2025 campaign and argued that the houses of cure losses have been recovered by the passage of Hurricane Ian in 2022, as well as tobacco production, with six million cigars for export.
In any case, it is clear to Tabacuba’s commitment to retain and encourage producers with various prebendas, although they are scarce. It was the case of the promise of more payment, but In freely convertible currency (MLC), devalued against the flourishing dollar, or the offer to redeem those MLC for vehicles, some high -endwhich so far have accepted very few.
It is also clear that if there is a state company that can make strong investments it is tobacuba. At the end of February, during the Habano Festivalthe company Habanos SA (mixed company formed equally by Cubatabaco and the Spanish Altadis) celebrated having achieved a revenue record of 827 million dollars – 106 million more than a year earlier – that is, 14.7% more.
The penguins of this item allow, even, to help other areas, some of them without any relation to tobacco. This is the case, for example, of the money provided to the Business and Bird Business Group (Gealav), belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to import feed and thus stop the unstoppable decrease in the number of chickens Padders
