SAN LUIS, Cuba (AP) — Six months after Hurricane Ian devastated 80 per cent of the region’s tobacco infrastructure, farmers in Cuba are trying to recuperate from the disaster.

And though they’ll produce less than in past seasons, they say they’ll still be able to harvest the leaves for premium hand-rolled cigars, one of the Caribbean nation’s key exports.

A neighbour lent him a house to dry leaves, and he had a little fertilizer saved, so he plucked up the courage to plant. Now, Hirochi Robaina can hardly believe the resulting miracle.

Robaina, one of the most recognised tobacco producers in Cuba, marvels as he walks through the intense green of plants that have grown more than a meter (three feet) high in the Pinar del Rio region.

“Not a single tobacco house was left standing. There were no warehouses, there was no tree left,” Robaino told The Associated Press, remembering how the storm left the region at the end of September. “Everything broke and at that moment I did not believe it was possible to plant.”

Robaina, 46, is heir to a grandfather’s estate that is so famous that a cigar brand bears his name: Vegas Robaina. At the beginning of October, Robaiana was resigned to planting only beans and vegetables — something, at least, but a waste for land that can produce some of the finest export tobacco.

But then he changed his mind and decided to try planting tobacco “to maintain the family tradition of a century,” he said, showing his tobacco over two hectares (about 5 acres) — or about 30 per cent of what he had at this time in 2022.

Ian’s impact added to an already intense economic crisis in Cuba, where the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dropped 11 per cent in 2020.

Many farmers don’t remember ever having lived through the kind of destruction brought by the hurricane. In the fall, they had doubted they would even be able to plant any tobacco this season. It requires special care, application of fertilizers at precise moments, irrigation, cloth to cover the plants and drying houses for the leaves.

With winds of more than 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour), Ian crossed the island from south to north to the west, devastating the Pinar del Río region where 80 per cent of the island’s tobacco is produced including almost all of its tobacco for export.

Five people in Cuba died overall and 30,000 were evacuated. Thousands of utility poles fell. Entire communities were without electricity, water, and telephones for weeks. Rice, corn, sweet potato and fruit crops were destroyed.

Some 10,000 tobacco drying houses were toppled. About 33,000 tons of stored leaves were lost, according to authorities.