Latin America
Related: About this forumTobacco Workers in Cuba Dubious About Opening of U.S. Market
Tobacco Workers in Cuba Dubious About Opening of U.S. Market
By Ivet González
SAN JUAN Y MARTÍNEZ, Cuba , Feb 28 2015 (IPS) - We have to wait and see, There isnt a lot of talk about it, are the responses from tobacco workers in this rural area in western Cuba when asked about the prospect of an opening of the U.S. market to Cuban cigars.
If the company sells more, I think they would pay us better, said Berta Borrego, who has been hanging and sorting tobacco leaves for over 30 years in San Juan y Martínez in the province of Pinar del Río, 180 km west of Havana.
The region of Vuelta Abajo, and the municipalities of San Juan y Martínez, San Luis, Guane and Pinar del Río in particular, combine ideal climate and soil conditions with a centuries-old farming culture to produce the worlds best premium hand-rolled cigars.
In this area alone, 15,940 hectares are planted every year in tobacco, Cubas fourth top export.
While continuing to hang tobacco leaves on the Rosario plantation, Borrego told IPS that there is little talk among the workers about how they might benefit if the U.S. embargo against Cuba, in place since 1962, is eased, as part of the current process of normalisation of bilateral ties.
Borrego said it would be good to break into the U.S. market, off-limits to Cuban cigar-makers for over half a century. And she said that raising the pay of day workers and growers would be an incentive for workers, because there is a shortage of both female and male workers since people dont like the countryside.
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/02/tobacco-workers-in-cuba-dubious-about-opening-of-u-s-market/
Autumn
(45,109 posts)forest444
(5,902 posts)For example, in Latin America -where Cuban cigars are available in all the finer bodegas- it's customary to close a business deal with cigars. The host of the meeting usually makes it a point to refer to them as Havanos, since anything less than a Cuban cigar might insult his guests.
And most Latin American businessmen are staunch anti-Communists; they're just not children about it.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)GuntherGebelWilliams
(58 posts)Keep that part of the embargo in place.
Those workers can go into other fields of endeavor.
Doesn't Cuba train 1000's of health care workers and send them on the world market?
Now that we can use in this country, drive down those health care costs.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)Its not like they will start smoking just to smoke cuban cigars. The only reason they are a novelty is because theh are illegal.
Flatulo
(5,005 posts)are just as good.
They are still terribly habit-forming though, mainly because they taste so darn good.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)It just creates black markets and smuggling cartels, and corrupts the cops and the government too of course.
Flatulo
(5,005 posts)Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed