Cuba aiming to boost tobacco output

Cuba’s vice president, Jose Ramon Machado, on Thursday urged the country’s tobacco farmers to increase output, according to a Xinhua News agency story.

“Cuban tobacco is the world’s best,” the official daily Granma quoted him as saying during a visit to the western province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba’s tobacco-growing center… “It is an advantage that we cannot afford to waste, so we have to have a strong output.”

According to the Xinhua story, another 15,940 ha of tobacco, or about 70 percent of the current national total, are to be planted in the province during the next season.

Tobacco is Cuba’s fourth biggest source of foreign trade revenue, bringing in more than $400 million dollars a year.