Sidebar

On the Decline of Oriental Tobacco Production in EU Countries (Video)

Log in

Forgot your password?

SmokingPipes.com Updates

3 Fresh Yeti Pipes
108 Fresh Peterson Pipes
18 Fresh Tsuge Pipes
12 Fresh Jacono Pipes
60 Fresh Savinelli Pipes

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Site Sponsors

Al Pascia
Blue Room Briars
Cigar World
Danish Pipe Shop
LePipe.it
MBSD Pipes
Missouri Meerschaum
Pipes2Smoke.com
PipeStud.com
SmokingPipes.com
Tabaccheria Corti
TinBids.com

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.
hfearly

hfearly

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 11, 2012
822
2
Canada
I've come across a video that I wanted to share. It's an interview with three young ex-tobacco farmers from Bulgaria (where for example the Djebel Basma tobacco is produced; Basma tobacco is for example an integral part of Frog Morton on The Town).
According to the farmers, the European Union has stopped subventions for tobacco farmers as part of their anti-smoking campaigns and is 'encouraging' tobacco farmers to give up their trade and start planting vegetables instead (encouragement comes in the form of letting them starve because they don't earn any money for their work).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1P7PbWx9we4#!

 
misterlowercase

misterlowercase

Lifer
May 31, 2012
4,295
37
Interesting, thank you for sharing this.
When the young man said "...it's not worth it to do for pennies", it was pretty sad. It seems the variety of fine Oriental leaf is already scarce, does this mean now there'll be even less available? Some blends, like the one you mentioned, get their unique profile from specific varietals, so lack of certain leaf would only further diminish the diversity of available pipe tobacco because these leaves can only be grown within certain geographical locations.
This post prompted me to search a little on more history, here's a nice map:

Untitled-1.gif

...here's a short historical summary:

Notes from History - The survival function of tobacco
...here's a partial preview of a book on the history of tobacco in Bulgaria:

Balkan Smoke: Tobacco and the Making of Modern Bulgaria
...and here's a very recent news story which is a bit alarming:

Bulgarian tobacco harvest relies on help from children
It seems that tobacco in Bulgaria is a very complex issue.

 
sparroa

sparroa

Lifer
Dec 8, 2010
1,466
4
Its one of the many ways that they are trying to subvert tobacco production without the use of an outright ban.

 
hfearly

hfearly

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 11, 2012
822
2
Canada
It's not only Bulgaria but also the Macedonia and Greece regions (i.e., Xanthi and Basma Oriental leaf). We've already seen Latakia die in Syria and the Shirzi leaf gone from Iran ... time to stock up on McClelland Grand Orientals and Frog Morton ...

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom