Tabaco

Cuban cigars are prized as the best in the world. With its ideal climate and vast knowledge that dating back hundreds of years, Cuba, arguably, produces the best tobacco on the planet.

The country’s second largest export is in increasing demand domestically and worldwide, with a surge in tourism, it grossed $430 million in 2016. Very little of that goes to the farmers themselves. They are required to sell 90 percent of their crop to the government at a set price. The remaining 10 percent can be sold at the farmer’s price.

The yearly crop takes around nine months, from soil preparation to the end of harvesting, and requires extensive care. Climate change has made an uncertain future for the cherished crop. With two dismal years of production, one year having no rain the next too much rain, farmers are celebrating a bumper crop this harvest season (2017).