Does lower amounts of production of tobacco in Cuba equate to better products?

[Edicion]

In today's 24:24 I read what Prez wrote re In the early 2000’s, they were planting 26,000 hectares of tobacco. Fast forward to last year and they managed just over 5000 hectares.

It made me think whether there's any correlation between having a huge production of tobacco and resulting quality issues (like I've read about early 2000s) and the lower amounts produced in the last few years but overall higher quality tobacco and some of the best products (cigars) made in decades (according to those who were around).

So in short, less tobacco, more care and attention to details, in production processes etc can be given to produce high quality products, on the other hand more tobacco, less attention to quality and control, inferior products put out.

I'm more fond of quality instead of quantity these days. So with this in mind, if it is true, I hope more production of tobacco does not equal to interior products down the line. Particularly if prices aren't going down. Somehow, I think many have grown accustomed and accepted the new pricing strategy since the product quality output has been incredible.

If higher volumes of tobacco production would mean to revert to lower quality products down the line, yes, it would not be ideal from perhaps my perspective but it might help the situation on the ground instead. There's the bigger picture 

So if there's a sweet spot or balance, from what I recall the 2014/2018 seem to have produced and had a good balance of quality and quantity. 

Please do share and enlighten me with your thoughts on this, keen to hear your views.

[NSXCIGAR]

I don't think the issue was overproduction of tobacco. It was overproduction of cigars. More leaf overall, produced optimally, results in more quality leaf, not less. 

Also starting around 1993 and ending around 2003 the strains in use were in flux. Essentially the replacements for the old Criollo & Corojo weren't ready before the original two became phased out. Yes, this probably resulted in less high quality leaf during that period but tonnage of leaf produced really didn't fluctuate much between the 1980s and early 2000s. 

You also can't look at hectares planted since 2021. Many factors contributed to that. For example no drying barns, no fuel and no fertilizer, no sense in planting. Hectares planted from 2017-2020 were in the 20,000 range. 

[NSXCIGAR]

6 hours ago, VeguerosMAN said:

Does Cuba still use Corojo and Criollo hybrids?  If so, what are their names?  I can't find the ultimate answer on google.

Once again @Corylax18 would probably have the most up-to-date info about exactly what strains are being planted these days as I've forgotten what's been embraced and what's been discarded over the last 20 years. One that I do believe made a return is Habana 2000 in the last 5-10 years however. 

[Fugu]

9 hours ago, VeguerosMAN said:

Does Cuba still use Corojo and Criollo hybrids?  If so, what are their names?  I can't find the ultimate answer on google.

Yes, new developments are based on selection and hybridisation of previous (i.e. not necessarily direct predecessors but also much older) strains. What’s being planted mostly isn’t completely homogeneous over the area. Farmers still have the option to select from within a restricted set of seeds/seedlings (depending on the requirements set by the tobacco research institute). As for recent developments, they started planting Corojo 2012 on a commercial scale around 2017. Yet another new strain development, named Corojo 2020, had been started to be planted in the 21/22 campaign. Both have been used for sun- and shade-grown plants. How far 2020 has actually proliferated on the fields meanwhile, or whether it has even been used at all as was envisioned escapes me atm.