In an acclimatized chamber, about 300 thousand cigars made in the province of Las Tunas for sale in the international market "sleep"; but, once again, the effects of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade that the United States Government maintains against Cuba are hitting.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The accessories are missing; that is, the supplies that allow the completion of the product, such as rings, wooden, and cardboard boxes. The country has not been able to import them and although their arrival is expected in August or September, the losses are significant.

Yosbel Batista Moreno, director of Industries of the Tobacco Collection, Benefit and Twisting Company, explained that, until the end of May, the plan was for 758 thousand units destined for export and of these, 576 thousand have already been twisted, but most of them lack the elements that make them ready for sale.

“Some 170 thousand 025 cigars with a value of five million 789 thousand 820 pesos have been damaged and the main cause of non-compliance is the lack of those resources. However, we are in a position to make up the arrears and over-fulfill the production plan.

“As a cigar factory for export, we only have one in the municipality of Puerto Padre, Vidal Navas Fernández, where 130 workers work. Of them, 60 are twisters.

“We were thinking of increasing exports at the Enrique Casals Villareal, Las Tunas, and Lázaro Peña González, Jobabo, factories. So that, we organized courses, but they had to be interrupted because it is not logical to continue accumulating production.”

OTHER PROCESSES ALSO SUFFER THE IMPACT OF THE BLOCKADE

"The production of layers has also been affected by the blockage and what is received to manufacture our cigars is not always what is needed to guarantee the quality of the productions demanded by the market that consumes them."

Those words of Carlos Betancourt Almaguer, general director of the Tobacco Collection, Benefit and Twisting Company, show that the effects of the blockade go beyond the lack of parts, pieces, and aggregates for agricultural machinery, fuel, fertilizers, and pesticides.

"Today, we have 350 hectares with irrigation, but we need to make investments until we reach no less than 1,300 hectares with modern irrigation systems.”

“Something similar happens with the curing houses. For the province to collect and benefit two thousand tons of tobacco planned in the development program it is necessary to have about four thousand houses and the reality does not exceed 50 percent.

“There are other issues, information and communications technology that are not quantified, but they do affect. From the productive point of view, without the blockade, we should be more advanced.”

To counteract these difficulties, tobacco growers in the province appeal to the application of green manure, the use of animal traction to care for plants, and irrigation by rudimentary methods. They do not renounce the fulfillment of their goals and that the territory of Las Tunas continues to grow in this activity.