Although it seemed impossible for those who left the morning after Hurricane Ian passed through the Pinar del Río province and from the height of a tank managed to see the town of San Luis, today the air that those same men and women breathe are new. who opted to raise El Corojo with their hands and heart.
To the producers of covered tobacco in that community, in September 2022 it rained, in addition to a cyclone, the disaster of leaving all the cure houses in the area under the rubble, none was left standing, and thus erased any possibility of starting a tobacco campaign this year.
But the will prevailed, the union between countrymen and the love for cultivation served to return the colors to that image of a waste field crushed by despair.
And how “the ill-gotten is taken by the devil”, already at this point in 2023 there are those who assure that this will be, as it has been a long time, the year of the export layer in San Luis, a result guaranteed by the effort of each one of them. their guajiros.
IN SEARCH OF ALTERNATIVES
The municipality must collect some 230 or 240 tons of tobacco and the aspiration is to obtain 20 percent of the export layer, equivalent to 39 tons, as announced by José Ángel Ortega Hernández, director of the Tobacco Collection and Processing Company (ABT) in the territory.
In this sense, a total of 172 hectares were planted this year by 105 producers, and so far they have collected 270,000 cujes. About 20 tobacco growers have already gone through the curing chambers, which collected approximately 30 tons of the nightshade, says Pedro Valdés Díaz, ABT specialist.
In the well-known kalfrizas of El Corojo, where before Ian there were 32 controlled cure chambers and billed between 2,000 and 2,500 cujes each, currently there are only 12 small ones with a capacity for barely 500 per chamber.
Ortega Hernández stated that these chambers never constituted curing capacity for the producer, because this is a service that the Company provides only to those cigars that meet the characteristics.
However, in the community of Santa María, where Virginia tobacco is located, there are others with better conditions, and due to the low harvest of blond tobacco in the current campaign, ABT managers decided to use them as an alternative and thus cure the Corojo variety. 2020 in both places.
This variety, which had been experimenting for two harvests, was put into circulation for the first time in all the producers, and demonstrated quality from the field. Leaf connoisseurs highlight its bright colors, good fat, elasticity and texture.
As reported by Valdés Díaz, they visited all the farmers repeatedly in search of better levels of export layers, “a good percentage is envisioned compared to the previous year, due to the absence of the green spot.”
THE FIRST STEPS
Among the greatest connoisseurs of covered tobacco in San Luis is Oscar Iglesias Iglesias (Jimagua), a leading pre-industry specialist, he is one of those who trusts the quality of the 2023 campaign. In the exchange with the press he did not miss an opportunity to caress the snuff and at every moment express how good it looked.
There in the cameras he explained each of the processes by which he is subjected until he reaches the banks of the chosen ones. He stated that after 23 or 24 days, at a temperature of 35 degrees and a relative humidity of 80 percent, the leaf takes on the appropriate colors; “The natural fermentation in pilones and the controlled curing process are two fundamental aspects for the leaf to continue its growth and improve its quality,” he said.
Eduardo Rodríguez Campos, curator in the chambers, spoke about the three processes, yellowing, color development and vein drying, who commented that each one has a certain humidity and another type of temperature, “the leaf begins to yellow from the edges to the center; when a mature leaf is visible in the field it is a sign for a good process, because the highest concentration of water is in the vein”.
The Jimagua took a leaf in his hands and showed the even first-rate cloths, the colors said that it was ready to make a cigar for export, “it has all the properties to be twisted, to obtain a Robusto or a Cohíba,” he stated, without However, he exhibited another that the different nuances were a sign of the lack of processing.
Thus, little by little, between turns of pylons, moja, benefit and another series of handlings, he referred to the more or less 20 activities carried out around the leaf during the period, while, he acknowledged, like his colleagues , the primordial effort of the peasants to launch this campaign.
For his part, Julio Santana Martínez, director of the V-13-0, explained that when it goes to the processing room, it is selected by quality until 29 layers are obtained, “then it enters the measuring and wrapping area, some have 40 leaves and another 50, after that it goes to the warehouses again and they are stacked again, the fermentation and settling process follows between 21 and 30 days, it reaches the finished production, that is, the preparation of thirds, which They are ready for commercialization.
ONE OF THE LEADERS
Alexey Concepción Morejón, belonging to the CCS Capitán San Luis, is one of the farmers who used two chambers to cure their harvest at the time of the visit and also praised the Corojo 2020 variety for responding very well, both in the field and in the field. drying, “is dilated in time and waits for the producer. If we had planted Criollo 98 or 2010, we would not have had these results, it is too late and tobacco takes a while, it is winter in the field, but not in the stringer”.
In the maduradero, a construction different from the traditional house, because it housed smaller cujes, they threaded their tobacco, then it would be taken to the chambers and organized to a measure of approximately six inches to start the burning and curing process.
Concepción Morejón stated that all the leaves are not brought to the kalfrizas to cure, “the filler, the over-filler or one and a half, for example, are strung in the traditional tobacco house, then the first light follows, this is when you begin to see the positive results for the layer in the drying.
“It is not until the second light that it is transferred to the fermentation chambers, just like the first fine, the second fine and the fat, the latter with very good results for export,” he declared.
The tobacco comes from the field in stretchers, each one brings about 10 cujes for stringing these small ones, about 40 meshes are threaded, that is, about 80 leaves, they cannot be more, because according to the producer, this avoids complications inside the camera, so it is essential to follow each of the technical steps as they are established.
BESIDES THE EFFORTS, STILL MISSING
Despite the atypicalities of this year, when only 855 hectares could be planted, both covered and sun tobacco, the efficiency in the result rejoices, backed by the constant effort of each worker. The municipality of San Luis was given the task of carrying out a campaign and it overcame the adversities with satisfactory achievements.
There is now a great goal to be met to respond to the upcoming campaign, which estimated in a first version, according to the director of the ABT Company, the planting of more than 2,000 hectares, and it is necessary to culminate with the construction of the 195 proposed tobacco houses.
After Ian, Ortega Hernández pointed out, the construction of the tobacco houses was assumed from the peasants’ own rescue, “the hurricane left a quantity of recoverable wood under the rubble, to which another volume of resources was added to producers equitably to raise the necessary ones”.
At the close of this report, the municipality had worked on 622 houses from different construction phases, of which 400 are already finished and 40 are in completion, just over 240 are in other phases.
The manager alluded to the issue of dissimilar maneuvers to avoid losses, an example of which is the brotherhood between peasants to protect the cigars of some in the houses of others, according to the capacities, such is the case of the well-known producer Hirochi Robaina, who he had the help of Osvaldo Fernández to protect part of his harvest, among many other examples that speak for themselves of the hospitality of the people of Pinar del Río.
In one way or another, the 1,300 tobacco farmers of San Luis raised their tobacco land, there was no doubt, after the storms calm came for those who did not believe in good omens.
But as the sight attests, this reporting team verified it, those from the homeland looked outside and dreamed, they had the courage to pursue their dreams and make the tobacco campaign come true, small, but unprecedented.
