Pinar del Rio: The Love for Land and Tobacco

Every year attendees to the 13^th Habano Festival has the opportunity to get in touch with the farming stage of Cuba’s tobacco industry, especially in the Vuelta Abajo region in Pinar del Rio

Right at daybreak, delegates visited San Juan y Martinez and chatted with farmers like Hector Luis Prieto, winner of the 2007 Habano of the Year Award and a 39-year-old outstanding producer.

His farmhouse in Quemado de Rubi, he explained, yields high throughputs of over 40 percent of top-notch wrapper, thanks to the perseverance, the love for his job and the nonstop desire to have a plentiful harvest of the finest quality.

The experience gained in this effort, he told Festival participants, is a key factor in the preparation of soils and in each and every task.

“Tobacco binds friends together around a table and the Festival brings nations together,” he added.

Another location visited by the delegates was the “Clodomira Ferrals” VD-2 Wick Removing Plant, where visitors talked with employees and took a closer look at the tobacco industry.

The visit came to a close with a lunch break at the Palmasola Ranch, where attendees listened to Cuban music and, of course, puffed on superb habanos.