HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 12 (ACN) Cuban tobacco growers expect to collect some 34 thousand tons of tobacco leaves this harvest, that wraps up in the first months of 2019, a 13 percent increase compared to the last one.
The President of Tabacuba Business Group, Justo Fuentes, said the company has already signed contracts with tobacco farmers on that figure, and "the harvest must be higher in hectares, quality and yield this year."
To achieve this purpose, growers throughout the island started planting some 30,000 hectare. In Pinar del Rio, the province that produces 70 percent of the best quality tobacco leaves, work is underway to recover from the damages caused by Hurricane Michael at the beginning of this week.
The tobacco industry is the island's fourth largest employer and economic sector, providing job for around 200,000 permanent employees. At the peak of the harvest, a quarter of a million people are employed for collection.
In the 2017-2018 season, producers harvested around 30,000 tons of tobacco, an increase of 6,000 tons compared with the previous season. Cuba sold half a billion dollars' worth of the premium cigars last year.
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