{"id":11816,"date":"2016-06-29T12:15:50","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T10:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/?p=11816"},"modified":"2016-06-30T12:01:39","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T10:01:39","slug":"the-yamasa-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/the-yamasa-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn More about Henke Kelners Ambitious Yamas\u00e1 Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twelve years ago, Hendrik Kelner and Manuel Peralta started what was both an ambitious and complex venture. Their goal was to find the best conditions possible for the cultivation of tobacco on the island of Hispaniola, and to develop a completely new growing region for Davidoff.<\/p>\n

Manuel Peralta, who is Head of Processing at Tabadom Holding, which belongs to Oettinger Davidoff, traveled to Cuba especially to examine highly praised climate conditions upon invitation by the University of Pinar del R\u00edo. Both men meticulously studied the topography of the Dominican Republic, analyzed the climate statistics and soil samples. They were looking for a patch of earth where minerals and trace elements were supposed to be present in the soil in natural form, and where the solar radia- tion and clouds, precipitation and soil moisture were ideally balanced.<\/p>\n

\"KelnerPeralta\"<\/a>Kelner and Peralta (on the right in the photo) were successful. In the region around Yamas\u00e1, a good one-and-a-half-hour\u2019s drive north of Santo Domingo, the climate and soil were fitting \u2026 almost. \u201cWe found out that the soil was unbelievably rich in nutrients but was also somewhat sour,\u201d explains Manuel Peralta. \u201cUsing calcium carbonate, we were finally able to maintain the PH-values between 5.5 and 6.5. That\u2019s ideal for tobacco.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the beginning stages, the lime was manually distributed; in the meantime, this is done automatically. The irrigation was also optimized over time. Today, a high-tech system provides each individual plant with water and fertilizer. Hendrik Kelner explains: \u201cThis was important to me for the reason that the soil is relatively coarse-grained; that\u2019s why the water and nutrients seep away.\u201d<\/p>\n

For years, the experiment-happy experts raised various kinds of tobacco together with their teams. Peralta says, \u201cWe carried out tests with 20 to 30 different seeds, observed their different growth stages, documented the development in the curing barns, record- ed the fermentation processes \u2026 It was a great deal of work, until, after about eight years, we were finally pleased with the results.\u201d As is well known, in 2010, Oettinger Davidoff launched the Puro d\u2019Oro Series, which also includes tobacco from this region. Over the course of time, around 100 hectares of land were acquired, of which 21 hectares are being farmed, respectively. \u201cWhy? Because the soil needs to be rested,\u201d says Peralta. \u201cThe fields are used in rotation and then each one is rested for two to three years. We put livestock on them to make sure that it goes through a complete lifecycle. The livestock eats the weeds, digests it and then leaves it on the fields again. And that provides organic nitrogen supply.\u201d<\/p>\n

On many of the fields, pulses are planted during the resting phase, especially Mucuna pruriens, which likewise gives the soil nitrogen. In the Yamas\u00e1 region, today Oettinger Davidoff produces mainly wrapper quality from three different types of tobacco. \u201cWe\u2019ve now developed a new hybrid seed, which is more aromatic than anything we\u2019ve grown up until now. We call it Arom\u00e1tica Dominicana,\u201d enthuses Hendrik Kelner. \u201cAnd luckily, this year\u2019s harvest, now the twelfth, is the best we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d In order to optimize the earnings, that is, to cultivate the biggest, thinnest and glossiest tobacco leaves possible, all the areas being used were covered with tobacco cloth without further ado. All 21 hectares! \u201cThe nets absorb 30 percent of the sun\u2019s rays. In this way, the leaves grow bigger, finer and have more gloss,\u201d explains Peralta.<\/p>\n

He is convinced that the tobacco leaves they produce in Yamas\u00e1 today exhibit the best organoleptic characteristics that he has ever seen. \u201cThey are bigger, oilier and more elastic \u2026\u201d With the profit rate of around 50 percent of wrappers, 30 percent binder quality, and 20 percent filler tobacco, Hendrik Kelner is still not entirely satisfied: \u201cShade-grown tobacco is very work and cost intensive, not only when it comes to what\u2019s done in the fields, but also during the drying process in the barns. I would be happy if we could still increase the share of wrappers. We have invested a tremendous amount of money and work into our Yamas\u00e1 project. It was a long, arduous path that we pursued 12 years ago. But we know that nothing is easy when it comes to tobacco.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twelve years ago, Hendrik Kelner and Manuel Peralta started what was both an ambitious and complex venture. Their goal was to find the best conditions possible for the cultivation of tobacco on the island of Hispaniola, and to develop a completely new growing region for Davidoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[177,49,68,44],"tags":[2594,2593,2595,2596,334],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cigarjournal.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}