Havana, Oct 7 (EFE) Cuba has reduced the area of its 2009 tobacco crop by almost 30 percent and the harvest forecast by 16 percent due to global recession, officials said.
The cutbacks are due to “the economic troubles that have generated a crisis” on the island, as well as the “financial restrictions that made it impossible to obtain the necessary resources”, according to a statement Tuesday on the web page of the National Statistics Office, or ONE.

The amount of land planted with tobacco was reduced from 28,200 hectares to 19,800 hectares, while average yield is expected to rise from 0.95 tons to 1.10 tons per hectare, the ONE said.

Cuba is going through one of its worst economic crises in decades due to the drop in exports, the rising cost of imports, three devastating hurricanes in 2008, the trade and financial embargo of the US, and the deficiencies of its own system.

Cuba produces some of the best tobacco in the world and is famous for brands of cigars like Montecristo, Cohiba, Partagas and Hoyo de Monterrey, whose sales have fallen in 2008 and 2009 because of the international crisis.