March 2022 Farm Report

[Corylax18]

Pinar del Rio looked nothing like it typically does when I visit in November. It looked nothing like it usually does Mid march either. The weather over the last 6 months has been very atypical for PdR. Cold (relatively speaking) and wet In October, November and into December. Because of this most Farmers delayed planting some or all of their plants until mid December, some planted as late as February.(Harvest has usually started by then)

The Size of the harvest has been HUGE. Everywhere we went; tall, healthy plants, filled with healthy leaves. I was stunned by the oily "stickiness" of the leaves. They left a residue on your shorts, hands, anything that came in contact with them. This stickiness carried through the initial drying process as well. This very high oil content should bode well for quality. 

As usual, you cant get two matching answers from any two people on any subject in Cuba. Salvador planted his Filler/sun grown tobacco first and had harvested all of it by last week. Hector Luis did the exact opposite. Planting his shade grown tobacco first. All of it had been Harvested by last week. 

Both farmers started harvesting the "Libre de Piez" leaves on Tuesday. Sun Grown at Hector's, Shade Grown at Salvador's. These are the lowest 4-6 leaves on each plant. The first one or two are picked, and dropped in place, to be tilled back into the soil. Despite the farms being less than a mile apart, both farmers seemed to be generating excellent Quality and Quantity with diametrically opposite approaches. The weather has been warm and dry since around the new year, good for filler, but everyone seems to agree cool breezy nights are best. It never got below 80F even at night. Hector was pumping the Rio Feo Near dry each day to water about 25% of his total acreage so results might not be as good for farmers without access to nearly unlimited water, large pumps and Hundreds of dollars worth of diesel. 

The Hole of Monterrey:

Finca Quemada de Rubi:

Hector got a BRAND NEW Tractor the day before I arrived. He and a couple hands where hooking it up and taking for a test drive when we pulled up. AC, Tinted windows, wipers, Deluxe! I didnt know "Belarus" was a tractor brand.............

Sun Grown/Filler Tobacco, almost ready for Harvest.

Salvador Carvajal's Shade Grown Tobacco:

 

 

[Kaptain Karl]

Very cool! With prices through the roof it’s nice to know quality will be very good for the foreseeable future!

[El Presidente]

Great stuff Cory 

[westg]

Great pics and thankyou for the info Cory. Miss it terribly

[riderpride]

Thank you so much for the write-up. The community appreciates your efforts. 

Hopefully the wife lets me out to PdR on our next trip down. Unfortunately it's hard to pry her from the beach .

Cheers!

[MrBirdman]

7 hours ago, Kaptain Karl said:

Very cool! With prices through the roof it’s nice to know quality will be very good for the foreseeable future!

If there is anyone left to roll the tobacco in 2-3 years...

[Meesterjojo]

1 hour ago, MrBirdman said:

If there is anyone left to roll the tobacco in 2-3 years...

Crazy thought, what if some non cuban business type hired non cuban rollers to travel to Cuba and roll for the factories? Perhaps in exchange for some exclusivity? 

I'm fairly ignorant of the complete situation there, so be gentle. 

[MrBirdman]

9 minutes ago, Meesterjojo said:

Crazy thought, what if some non cuban business type hired non cuban rollers to travel to Cuba and roll for the factories? Perhaps in exchange for some exclusivity? 

I'm fairly ignorant of the complete situation there, so be gentle. 

The problem is who would work for the wages Tabacuba pays? A partnership on the production end as they did with HSA isn’t technically impossible I suppose, but I doubt it’ll happen.

i don’t know that there will be a viable solution in the coming years, beyond training new rollers and hoping the economy stabilizes enough to stem the hemorrhaging of talent.

[Meesterjojo]

Just now, MrBirdman said:

The problem is who would work for the wages Tabacuba pays? A partnership on the production end as they did with HSA isn’t technically impossible I suppose, but I doubt it’ll happen.

i don’t know that there will be a viable solution in the coming years, beyond training new rollers and hoping the economy stabilizes enough to stem the hemorrhaging of talent.

That's just it: pay these imported rollers non cuban wages. They'd work for whatever non cuban entity hires them, and be provided as a business partnership. 

Oh well. Hopefully this gets somewhat worked out this year. 

[Chucko8]

Thanks for the great update and photos. Very promising indeed 

[RijkdeGooier]

That was a great update @Corylax18 👍👍👍

[rcarlson]

A breath of optimism.  Maybe vintage years are just around the corner.  

[Corylax18]

On 3/12/2022 at 7:21 PM, westg said:

Great pics and thankyou for the info Cory. Miss it terribly

It was great to be back, I'm already planning my next trip. 😄

On 3/12/2022 at 8:53 PM, MrBirdman said:

If there is anyone left to roll the tobacco in 2-3 years...

Exactly. Its encouraging to see at least one part of the process going well, but the average age of employees in the industry is creeping up every day. 

On 3/13/2022 at 8:46 AM, rcarlson said:

A breath of optimism.  Maybe vintage years are just around the corner.  

Fingers Crossed! Tabacuba should have the raw materials they need to be successful, hopefully they don't F it up. 

[guideright]

Thanks for all the work putting this together - great photos!!!

[DaBoot]

On 3/12/2022 at 9:37 PM, Meesterjojo said:

That's just it: pay these imported rollers non cuban wages. They'd work for whatever non cuban entity hires them, and be provided as a business partnership. 

Oh well. Hopefully this gets somewhat worked out this year. 

Would you show up to work if the “immigrants” made 10 times your wage? Recipe for disaster 

[dicko]

Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing mate

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[Silverstix]

That's just it: pay these imported rollers non cuban wages. They'd work for whatever non cuban entity hires them, and be provided as a business partnership. 
Oh well. Hopefully this gets somewhat worked out this year. 

Yeah but who is going to pay the non Cuban entity? Wouldn’t it have to be Tabacuba subcontracting the work? I think that’s where the crap wages come into play. Let’s say they spend $1/hour for the Cubans to roll them….they aren’t going to pay more to outsource it to a non Cuban entity….at least I don’t think I would lol


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