The tobacco planting campaign for the period 2021-2022 began at La Patrona development farm, in the municipality of Las Tunas.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The tobacco growers from Las Tunas are redoubling their efforts to comply with the commitment to sow 600 hectares in the season, despite the difficult economic and epidemiological context, and put their efforts to increase the agricultural yields of this crop.

According to Carlos Betancourt Almaguer, CEO of the Tobacco Collection, Processing, and Twisting Company in the territory, "the planting began today with two hectares, besides the provincial capital, in three other municipalities: "Jesús Menéndez," "Colombia," and Manatí. He also emphasized that, in the coming months, the plantings will be defined, coinciding with the optimum period for planting.

Among the purposes of this campaign, Romilio López Álvarez, the agricultural director of the entity, indicated that they are to raise and fill with seeds 15 thousand beds for the production of seedlings in traditional seedbeds and to exploit 13 tunnels with 12,350 trays in rootball. To guarantee 10 percent of the sowings in October, 60 percent in November, and to leave the remaining 30 percent for December are the figures planned by the growers to fulfill what has been agreed this year.

A strategy marks the gradual development of the season. “We started with more than 300 hectares in movement, which represents 50 percent of the land to be sown, and this puts us in an advantageous position to continue. Another of the distinctive elements is the new price for the crop, which encourages farmers to seek alternatives to meet the contracted figures,” the director added.

A contribution of two million pesos was awarded to this company as part of the property tax. "The main objective of this loan is to create the conditions to convert the Enrique Casals twisted tobacco factory for national consumption, located in Las Tunas municipality, into a production entity for export," the manager explained.

Other projections are also heading in the sector, among them, to advancing in the productive indices for, in the year 2030, surpass the two thousand tons in the stockpile and promote the covered tobacco, fundamental for the sale outside borders.