Cuba Plots Tobacco Course Post-Hurricane

Tabacuba Business Group of Cuba is drawing up new strategies for tobacco output in the 2022–2023 harvest following the destruction of Hurricane Ian, reports Prensa Latina.

Marino Murillo, president of Tabacuba, considered the Pinar del Rio province as decisive in the effort. 

All tobacco that was protected in natural curing houses and warehouses will be collected; 33,000 tons of the existing 41,000 tons are in this province, which reported 80 percent infrastructure destruction.

Anywhere from 15,000 tons to 17,000 tons of tobacco will be taken to other provinces, and seedbed irrigation will be immediately resumed.

Warehouses and natural curing houses that are in good condition will be stripped of available materials because the country is deficient in wood, according to Murillo.

Tobacco growers in Pinar del Rio kept 650 tons of covered tobacco from being damaged with their early actions before the hurricane.

According to Murillo, Cuba is still planning on planting tobacco, which covers 15,000 ha nationwide, but the area to be used in Pinar del Rio has not yet been defined and will depend on possible curing houses that can be rebuilt.