Cuban Growing Cigar Tobacco Near Florida

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 24

Cuban Growing Cigar Tobacco Near Florida

Jaime Torano, a leading tobacco grower and processor in Cuba before the Castro regime, is confounding the experts by growing top quality cigar tobacco in southern Florida.

Agricultural experts have said for years that tobacco could be successfully grown in Florida only along the Georgia border, where it has become a big industry. But Torano declares that “with the right land here, we can grow the best wrapper tobacco outside Pinar del Rio Province in Cuba. It is better than northern Florida tobacco and as good as the Connecticut leaf.” Mr Torano, who fled Cuba six years ago, planted a single acre of tobacco three years ago. This year, he has five acres.

“This tobacco is so good that it can be used in any high-priced cigar,” he says. “The seeds were imported from Cuba before it was cut off. This is the kind of tobacco I used to grow over there. “It will never match the fine old Havana taste, though. It must be the soil. The best Havana-used tobacco came from Pinar del Rio and grows only in two sections of that western Cuban province, San Luis and San Juan. We cannot match it here.” Cuban tobacco cannot be imported, and stored stocks will be used up by the end of this year, according to tobacco men in Miami. This, they say, is why Torano is likely to make a success of his project. Torano's 10 employees, who all worked for him in Cuba, joined him when he started experimenting with tobacco growing. He expects a 9000pound harvest this year.