The leaf 'isn't of good enough quality' for making the famous Havana cigars, plague Yurisniel, 35, as he harvests the large bright green tobacco leaves which he skillfully piles up in pairs on his forearm before slipping them off on a "cuje", the wooden stick used for drying them.

In San Juan and Martinez, in the same province of Pinar del Rio, Livan Aguiar, a 49-year-old tobacco grower, also deplores the lack of inputs which affects the color and size of the leaf.

"This year, the nitrate did not come in, there was no nitrate to work" the plant, he regrets.

A man harvests tobacco leaves at a plantation in Viñales, Pinar del Rio province, Cuba, January 18, 2022 YAMIL LAGE AFP/Archives

Livan Aguiar explains that he planted 50,000 tobacco plants on land that the state leaves him in usufruct: "I have to buy them all the products, fertilizers, pesticides (...) I pay them at the end of the harvest" , he explains while cutting the large leaves at their base.

The island's tobacco growers will sell 95% of their production to the public company Tabacuba, the remaining 5% being intended for self-consumption.

Tabacuba will determine the price based on the quality of the leaf, with the best being for the outer wrapper of the cigar.

"Both the acquisition of the products (fertilizers) and their delivery to Cuba have been difficult" during this season, which goes from sowing in October until the end of the harvest in May, said Friday during a conference of the press the head of the agricultural department of Tabacuba, Pavel Noe Caseres.

YAMIL LAGE AFP/Archives

He pointed to "logistical difficulties during the pandemic and the intensification of the American embargo against the island".

Guava, honey, rum

With the economy plummeting by 11% in 2020 and a slight recovery of 2% in 2021, the Caribbean island is facing its worst economic crisis in almost 30 years and imported products such as fertilizers and pesticides, bought by the State and then distributed to farmers, are becoming rare.

And the volume of tobacco leaf harvest continues to fall: from 32,000 tons in 2017 to 25,800 tons in 2020, it should reach only 22,000 tons this year, according to Tabacuba.

A man places the harvested tobacco leaves on a wooden rod on which they will be dried, on January 18, 2022 in Viñales, Cuba YAMIL LAGE AFP / Archives

But according to Caseres, the scarcity of Havana will only affect local consumers, as the country has a stock of tobacco to produce export cigars for two years.

In Viñales and its famous rocky mountains where 65% of Cuban tobacco is produced, Yurisniel has planted 25,000 tobacco plants but estimates that he will manage to harvest at most half a ton of tobacco leaves, much less than the 900 kg of last year.

The rest of the year he grows maize and other legumes to support his family.

The harvested tobacco leaves will be transported, pulled by an animal, on January 18, 2022 in Viñales, in the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba YAMIL LAGE AFP/Archives

After the leaves are harvested, the work of the tobacco growers is not over.

The trays where the leaves are hung are stored in a drying room in a specific orientation to promote an adequate mixture of sun, air and humidity.

Then comes next, before the final stage of rolling the Havana, the fermentation of the leaves.

For Yurisniel it will be a mixture of guava, honey, rum and water in which the dried leaves will be soaked before being stored in packets for six months.

A woman prepares leaves to be dried in a tobacco barn on February 17, 2022 in San Juan and Martinez, Pinar del Rio province, Cuba YAMIL LAGE AFP/Archives

Collected by Tabacuba, the leaves will then pass into the expert hands of the "torcedors" to be rolled and sold, like a luxury product, under the seal of the State.

© 2022 AFP