Cuban Tobacco Season Begins

[Corylax18]

Seed beds are starting to be planted (hopefully after Helene blows through) with the goal of planting 12,000 hectares in Pinar del Rio. That's WAY down from even a few years ago, but if they hit that goal it will be a lot more than the generated in either of the last two years. 

I would love to hear more about the "Foreign Currency Scheme" that has supposedly allowed Tabacuba to provide all the raw materials needed to hit the stated goals.  

https://www.granma.cu/cuba/2024-09-22/cuba-aspira-a-lograr-una-campana-tabacalera-significativa-22-09-2024-21-09-32

[Fugu]

"Murillo Jorge comentó que los principales desafíos del sector están en lograr una mayor eficiencia y elevar los rendimientos agrícolas, distantes hasta ahora de las 1,4 toneladas por hectárea a las que aspira el Grupo."

As to my understanding that would mean a quite considerable increase in area-productivity. Hoping that this won’t come at the expense of quality.

In any case – wishing them best of luck!

[El Presidente]

If they reach 70% of target it would be a very good result. However if they indeed have fuel and fertiliser in place they may have a shot. 

Intriguing to see where they are pulling in the farm workers from. I see this as their achilles heel. 

 

[westg]

23 hours ago, El Presidente said:

If they reach 70% of target it would be a very good result. However if they indeed have fuel and fertiliser in place they may have a shot. 

Intriguing to see where they are pulling in the farm workers from. I see this as their achilles heel. 

I would happily go and volunteer for a season. 😀

[El Presidente]

21 minutes ago, westg said:

I would happily go and volunteer for a season. 😀

......tell me that after day three of cutting the bottom primings 😉

[Lt4-396]

12,000 hectares... is that, is that good?

Roughly what did they plant from 00' to 20'? How many hectacres did they actual harvest? How does that quantity compare to estimated rolled cigars? Is 12K hectacres enough to at worst maintain production levels in the coming years?

Most if not all of these questions are rhetorical as I don't believe any of that info is published but would love to hear opinions from those in the know.

Also, how many years or months is the lag between harvest to production. 

[Mr. DD]

I just hope that Hurricane Helene spares the island, especially the Pinar del Rio province, Villa Clara and other growing regions.

[westg]

13 hours ago, El Presidente said:

......tell me that after day three of cutting the bottom primings 😉

Easy, I would be in heaven. That shadow you have is growing.  😇

[El Presidente]

On 9/26/2024 at 10:07 AM, Lt4-396 said:

12,000 hectares... is that, is that good?

Below half of what they were planting 10 years ago . 

[Corylax18]

On 9/25/2024 at 5:30 AM, Fugu said:

"Murillo Jorge comentó que los principales desafíos del sector están en lograr una mayor eficiencia y elevar los rendimientos agrícolas, distantes hasta ahora de las 1,4 toneladas por hectárea a las que aspira el Grupo."

As to my understanding that would mean a quite considerable increase in area-productivity. Hoping that this won’t come at the expense of quality.

In any case – wishing them best of luck!

Those numbers would indicate a reversion towards mean rather than any kind of all time high. And, as both the article and Rob stated, are just aspirations, there is almost no chance production at that level will be achieved. Even if they could grow that much, they still cant process that much. Even two years later the infrastructure damaged by Hurricane Ian still hasn't been completely replaced. I posted an article last year about how they where using abandoned middle and high schools as stripping and sorting warehouses. 

On 9/25/2024 at 6:07 PM, Lt4-396 said:

12,000 hectares... is that, is that good?

Roughly what did they plant from 00' to 20'? How many hectacres did they actual harvest? How does that quantity compare to estimated rolled cigars? Is 12K hectacres enough to at worst maintain production levels in the coming years?

Most if not all of these questions are rhetorical as I don't believe any of that info is published but would love to hear opinions from those in the know.

Also, how many years or months is the lag between harvest to production. 

Long story short. No.

12,000 hectares is well below peak, it's damn near all time lows, which was probably last year. As you mentioned, accurate/trust worthy info is hard to find here, but last year they planned to plant 15,000 hectares and only achieved about 9,500. Many said that generated the smallest tobacco cuban tobacco crop in history. The biggest issue is growing export grade wrapper leaf. They havent had enough of it for a decade or more. 

To answer your last question, it depends. Wrapper takes about 12 months to ferment and age, its similar for volado, seco is 18-24 months, and ligero is usually around 30 months.