Syria launching first locally-made cigars

In Syria’s north-eastern province of Latakia, workers are rolling the country’s first locally made cigars, despite the country’s suffering a devastating civil conflict now in its fifth year, according to an Al Bawaba.com story.

The project, devised by the state-run General Tobacco Company (GTC), has been three years in the making, with workers learning to hand-roll cigars in accordance with international standards.

“We decided to develop a new product without foreign expertise with the hope of supporting the economy,” said plant manager Shadi Mualla, who is critical of what he believes is the economic war being waged against Syria by the West.

The initiative is expected to create about 1,000 new jobs, according to the company’s director general, Salman al-Abbas.

“The company will start selling the products on the local market very soon and then begin trying to export to friendly countries,” said Abbas.

The tobacco for the cigars is grown by GTC in coastal Latakia, which lent its name to a small-leaved oriental tobacco that was sun-cured and then fumigated over open fires of green wood.