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STORY: HAITI / CIGARS
TRT: 2.22
SOURCE: MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: CREOLE / NATS
DATELINE: 21 JULY 2009, JACMEL, HAITI
1. Med shot, boys wrapping cigars
2. Close up, cigars in wrappers
3. Med shot, two men looking at dried tobacco leaves
4. Close up, looking at dry tobacco
5. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Pierre Jean Marie, Tobacco planter:
“To grow a good tobacco plant, first you need a good fertilizer. Then you need to prepare the soil, and plant the tobacco. Then you let it grow, but not too high.”
6. Wide shot, house
7. Med shot, drying leaves in the house
8. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Pierre Jean Marie, Tobacco planter:
“You need to check the leaves carefully for caterpillars. They are really annoying; they can eat everything, particularly the good plants.”
9. Close up, hands wrapping tobacco leaves
10. Med shot, man pressing leaves into a cigar
11. Close up, a tobacco press
12. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Yvan Milord, Cigar entrepreneur:
“A lot of foreigners have never heard of Haitian cigars. They try them out. If they like them, they buy them, and I get a clientele.”
13. Close up, hands wrapping tobacco
14. Close up, man’s face
15. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Yvan Milord, Cigar entrepreneur:
“The cigar can’t be bumpy; it has to be smooth all the way down. If it’s bumpy, you won’t be able to pull the smoke through.”
16. Close up, photograph of his grandfather
17. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Yvan Milord, Cigar entrepreneur:
“This is my grandfather.”
18. Close up, man’s face
19. Close up, photograph
20. Med shot, man flipping pages in book
21. SOUNDBITE (Creole) Yvan Milord, Cigar entrepreneur:
“I am the only investor in this business. I don’t have any loans or anything.”
22. Med shot, hand wrapping a finished cigar
23. Med shot, man wrapping a finished cigar
In Jacmel, cigars are still made individually by hand, and while for now they are only sold locally, a young entrepreneur is following his family tradition in hopes that Haitian cigars will become well known throughout the world.
Good tobacco plants are key to high quality cigars. Pierre Jean Marie is one of the tobacco planters from whom Yvan Milord and his “Rocher” brand obtain their raw material. Being in this business for more than 40 years, Jean Marie knows how to satisfy the demands of his clients.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Pierre Jean Marie, Tobacco planter:
“To grow a good tobacco plant, first you need a good fertilizer. Then you need to prepare the soil, and plant the tobacco. Then you let it grow, but not too high.”
After the harvest, the plants dry hanging for one week under the roof of Jean Marie’s house. Pests can be a problem.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Pierre Jean Marie, Tobacco Planter:
“You need to check the leaves carefully for caterpillars. They are really annoying; they can eat everything, particularly the good plants.”
The dried tobacco leaves are then rolled and pressed, to get them into the right shape and to make them look homogeneous.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Yvan Milord, Cigar entrepreneur:
“A lot of foreigners have never heard of Haitian cigars. They try them out. If they like them, they buy them, and I get a clientele.”
Yvan and his team produce 4,000 cigars every three months in the three most common sizes - Churchill, Corona and Robusto.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Yvan Milord, Cigar entrepreneur:
“The cigar can’t be bumpy; it has to be smooth all the way down. If it’s bumpy, you won’t be able to pull the smoke through.”
By producing the Rocher cigars, 32-year old Yvan is following a long family tradition.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Yvan Milord, Cigar entrepreneur:
“This is my grandfather.”
Lack of financial possibilities limits him in the marketing.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Yvan Milord, Cigar entrepreneur:
“I am the only investor in this business. I don’t have any loans or anything.”
Although not yet as well known as Cubans or Dominican cigars, the brand is making inroads and beginning to be known in Canada, the US and Europe.
