Retired police general dreams of made-in-Vietnam cigars

Born in the land of waterpipe tobacco - Vinh Bao district, Hai Phong city, and with many years of experience studying and working in Cuba - a famous cigar producer, police officer Major General Dang Van Dung has always dreamt of making cigars in his hometown.

Cigar trees grown in the land of waterpipe tobacco

In the middle of a field located along a paved village road in Viet Tien commune, Vinh Bao district is a row of warehouses with parpaing walls and iron roofs, surrounded by plots of land covered by a strange tree - the northern catalpa. At the end of summer, the field is harvested, leaving only a few small leaves on the gradually withering trunks.

Born in 1957, Dung, the owner of the field, with a tanned face and wearing jeans and a shirt, walks up to the warehouses and inspects the drying leaves. From the warehouse roofs, the bundled leaves hanging from the iron hooks are turning yellow.

Taking visitors around the harvested field, with only bare trunks and weeds remaining, Dung said: "This year's crop was harvested in May, so now there are only the the roots of the trees left which will be cleared to make way for a new crop. The cigar is similar to the waterpipe tobacco used here in my countryside as there is only one crop a year."

The police general was born and grew up in Vien Lang village, Viet Tien commune. From a young age, he helped his parents with farm work such as watering and removing pests for their waterpipe tobacco. During the “subsidy economy” period, for the poor Vinh Bao countryside, growing rice was only enough for meals and waterpipe tobacco became an important source of income for each family.

In 1975, when pursuing tertiary education in Havana, the capital city of Cuba, seeing with his own eyes that the tobacco there was similar to the waterpipe tobacco back home, he had the idea of bringing the plant back to his hometown to grow. A few years as a student quickly passed, and Dung returned to Vietnam to take a job in the police sector and was swept up by the work.

"It's my destiny to be sent back to work in Cuba. After 15 years, I had the opportunity to learn how to grow and process the tobacco. I just thought simply that the cigar is similar to the waterpipe tobacco, so it could be grown in my hometown. If successful, it would be economically efficient," Dung said.

At the weekends, instead of resting, Dung and his native friends wandered out to the fields to learn about the plant. He often went to San Luis and San Juan Y Martinez towns, which are the most famous cigar-producing regions in Cuba. He carefully observed and noted how to plant, fertilize and harvest the tobacco as well as the incubation process for the leaves to be fermented and rolled into cigars. Over time, his knowledge and experience expanded and his notebooks filled. He used to send seeds home for friends to try and grow but they failed because the harvested leaves need to go through many processes to give the cigars their distinctive flavor.

In 2018, retiring with the rank of major general, Dang Van Dung had the chance to start realizing his dream. Financially supported by his wife and children, he returned to his hometown to rent 1.5 hectares of land in a high field from local residents and turned it into a tobacco field. Then he built his warehouses for production. Using seedlings sent by his friends, in 2019 he started his first crop.

Pure Vietnamese cigars made in Vinh Bao

Like waterpipe tobacco, the cigar leaves are grown after the Lunar New Year, with no use of pesticides or chemicals. From the summer, the fields are plowed and dried so that all pests in the soil die. After the Lunar New Year, work starts on making beds and planting seedlings. Wrapper leaves are the largest leaves taken from the bottom of the trees. These leaves must not be hit by pests because they cannot be used if any holes appear. Leaves rolled to create ignition propensity and flavor are taken from the middle to the top of the trees.

During the careful process, pesticides and chemical fertilizers are not used, only micro-fertilizers to ensure the flavor of the leaves. After three months, the trees are taller than an adult, and the mature leaves begin to be harvested. Unlike waterpipe tobacco, which is harvested in a short time, the cigar harvest lasts 1-2 months, with 15-20 leaves per tree. When harvesting or tilling land, Dung has to hire more workers, instead of only 1-2 people, to dry and incubate his leaves.

However, harvesting leaves is just the beginning. The most important thing is to produce cigars with a distinctive flavor. The whole process from seeding, planting to harvesting, drying, and rolling leaves into cigars must go through more than 100 stages. Of which, the fermentation stage is the most difficult, with the incubation period lasting at least three years. For special cigars, this stage may be up to 10 years. The quality of the harvested leaves and the drying and incubation process play a crucial role in determining whether the cigar burns or not and its taste.

For his first crop, Dung piloted his leaves on about 0.18 hectares. After harvesting, the leaves were hung up in the warehouses to dry and ferment, but after a while, most of them had wilted. Thinking carefully, he realized that the high humidity had damaged the fermenting tobacco leaves. After he adjusted the humidity, the remaining leaves were successfully fermented. In the second crop, Dung planted more than 1 hectare of tobacco. There were still some damaged leaves but most of them were fermented successfully. He is now on his fourth crop.

Opening the motorcycle trunk and taking out a nylon bag containing cigars in a shape that is not very sophisticated and eye-catching, Dung lit a cigar and invited guests to try. These cigars were made in 2020, after three years of incubating. His wife helped him manually roll these cigars. According to Dung, cigars have seven distinctive flavors including cream, fruit, vanilla, mint, honey, wood and grass. "At first, we shaped cigars but they did not burn. After many times, the cigars we made met the requirements. Now our cigars can burn and have a minty flavor mixed with honey," he said.

At present, tobacco production facilities in Vietnam are mostly for processing cigarettes with a cigar flavor from imported raw materials. On the other hand, cigars, whether processed or imported, are very expensive. That is why he dreams of successfully producing "made-in-Vinh Bao" cigars that meet high standards and have distinctive flavors, thereby satisfying the needs of consumers as well as bringing in higher economic efficiency than waterpipe tobacco.

However, the police general also admitted that his "project" has gained only initial successes in creating raw materials and processing them into cigars that can be smoked. To make cigars for sale, it is necessary to create cigars with a beautiful design, delicious taste, and similar quality to those already available.

"This is just the first success. I cherish a dream of expanding the plantation and output to produce commercial cigars. This successful test will be the driving force for me to realize my dream of made-in-Vinh Bao cigars," he said.

This is a new crop for commercial production, so it needs a lot of effort, dedication, knowledge and finance, as well as support mechanisms and policies from the state, he stated.

"It's still too early to talk about success. But I will try my best to create pure Vietnamese cigars," said Dung.