Today I went to a agricultural association. I met a Cuban tobacco expert there, Leodanis. He was working in the only cigar factory in Turkey which was located in Istanbul. The name of the company was TEKA. It was established in 2000 in partnership with Cuban CATEC company and closed in 2003. After the shutdown of the company he decided to stay here. He said that it's not allowed to export tobacco in Cuba but there was a privilage with that company in those days. As he said their production capability was app. 15 million cigars a year. Only Cuban grown tobaccos were used in that facility. There were machine rolled cigars, as well as hand rolled cigars. So there should be plenty of people came from Cuba for rolling cigars, I think. As he said, they produced 5 millions of Fonseca brand (Habanos SA.) cigars here in three years.
I asked him which strains of tobacco is generally used in a Cuban cigar. He gave the four major strains name; “Habana 92”, “Habana 2000”, “Criollo 98” and “Corojo 99”. He also said that “Criollo 98” and “Corojo 99” are the most valuable strains for Cuban cigars. But there's no clue which one is used as wrapper, filler or binder. I think “Habanas” and “Corojo 99” are wrappers and “Criollo 98” may be used as a binder or filler.
I asked him which strains of tobacco is generally used in a Cuban cigar. He gave the four major strains name; “Habana 92”, “Habana 2000”, “Criollo 98” and “Corojo 99”. He also said that “Criollo 98” and “Corojo 99” are the most valuable strains for Cuban cigars. But there's no clue which one is used as wrapper, filler or binder. I think “Habanas” and “Corojo 99” are wrappers and “Criollo 98” may be used as a binder or filler.