From Green to Gold

The harvested tobacco is given its specific characteristics through curing, which also removes the moisture from the leaf. The leaf's colour, texture, aroma, and flavour are all influenced by curing. Four major curing techniques can be recognised based on the type of tobacco.

1. Flue-cured

Flues in barns that are fed by outside fire boxes are used to heat cure tobacco without exposing it to smoke while gradually boosting the temperature during the curing process. Flue curing tobacco is used in virginia.

2. Fire-cured

Large barns with tyres of hardwoods kept on a constant or sporadic low smoulder are used to hang tobacco.

3. Sun-cured

Uncovered tobacco is exposed to the sun to dry naturally. Sun-cured oriental leaves are grown in Greece and Turkey.

4. Air-cured

In well-ventilated barns without a source of power for heating, leaves are hanged. Air curing is used to create cigar and burley tobacco.

The Process

Grading

Depending on the type of market, cured leaves are manually separated into homogeneous lots based on the plants' stalk positions, quality, and colour, as well as according to international grading standards and Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) grade standards.

Threshing

At the centre of the FCV production belt, the KKME warehouse is less than 30 km from any of the four main threshing units. Here, the lamina is cut loose from the stem and re-dried to maintain consistent and homogeneous moisture levels throughout the batch. The majority of the graded tobacco is threshed, while some is hand stripped for certain applications. Re-drying and conditioning are necessary to provide the ideal safe storage moisture content, even if the order requirement is restricted to the following.

Packing

The re-dried tobacco products are packaged with a variety of materials. Re-dried threshed lamina (RTL) is typically packed in bale board packs and CFB cartons in net weights ranging from 180 to 200 kg. The client's warehouse or plant receives the cartons once they have been packed.