Conrado López González directs one of the main tobacco producing cooperatives in the municipality of San Juan y Martínez, in Pinar del Río. To talk with the producer, we went to Obeso’s choice, which, like a five-door tobacco house, was left on the ground by the passage of Hurricane Ian.
Before, we passed through the rubble of one of the 38 controlled cure houses that the territory has. “The cyclone completely knocked down the tobacco house,” says López González as he points to the entire structure on the ground. Below you can see the tobacco that is still covered with hermetic tarpaulins.
“The horcones, which were from Ocuje de María, a strong material, he pulled out by the roots and some he broke. Everything is messed up. The cover was repairing it and now there is nothing left. The wires are still watered. The zinc plates on the roof blew up and I couldn’t recover them,” lamented this farmer.
After the passage of the hurricane – assures the producer – nobody has touched anything. “I’m waiting for the company to decide what to do with the product because in there, in addition to wet tobacco, there is also dry tobacco.”
Around 4 in the morning last Tuesday, Conrado and his wife began to put a blanket on one of the blinds through which the water entered and a zinc that flew out of the ceiling cut his face and her back. .
“María Isabel got under the plateau and from there she did not want to get out because of the scare. The house completely fell apart; Last night I slept under the night watchman,” says the man from San Juan.
Despite his personal effects, what worries him the most is the damage to the harvested tobacco. “I have recovered some fibers and in two or three days my house will have a roof.”
Regarding the recovery of the cooperative, he said: “With the wood that is there I can build another tobacco house, even if it is smaller. If I succeed, I will harvest again this campaign”.
Damages that Ian left to Sanjuanero tobacco.
According to statements to the press by Yosvany López González, head of the post of the Tabacuba analysis directorate in San Juan y Martínez, until this Wednesday, 151 of the 155 deposits used by the company to store the tobacco that it collects from the producer had been reported. as total landslides.
Of the 27 chosen, including the stemming process, there are 15 completely destroyed, two partially and seven with damaged roofs. “Until the 20th of this month, 4,110.38 tons of tobacco had been collected. Another 157.87 t were in the hands of the 67 producers and the current state of that harvest is not exactly known,” explained the manager.
In total, there are 5,680.69 tons in the Tabacuba warehouses in the territory, which includes the collection of this year, last campaign, in the production process and the finished one, in addition to 151.80 tons that belong to the Rama Company.
The 38 controlled healing houses are on the ground, and of the 28 healing chambers, one half collapsed completely and the other partially. Also, the five fermentation chambers that are used to improve dry tobacco have problems with roofing after the passage of lan.
Of the 1,792 priest houses that belong to the producing peasants, 1,739 collapsed. On the other hand, the 8,400 stonecutters in the territory were lost.
López González said that he was oriented, at first, to rescue the tobacco that was in those damaged structures. “You have to cover what is possible and move the tobacco that works there,” he concluded.