CLE, FIU Collaborating for New Tobacco Research Lab

CLE Cigar Co. and Florida International University have signed an agreement that will see the latter study potential improvements for cigar tobacco growing and processing.

Yesterday, the two parties finalized the agreement for the new Eiroa Innovation Fund, which will work with FIU’s Agroecology Program.

Christian Eiroa, founder of CLE, told halfwheel that the new partnership will focus on three main areas:

1. Developing more affordable tobacco barns
2. Reducing the time needed to cure tobacco
3. Lowering the cost of growing regardless of location

Eiroa said the goal is to make it easier for smaller growers to opt to grow the dark air-cured tobacco used for handmade cigars. He says they are going to start with tobacco barns, which store the individual leaves after they are harvested and begin the process of going from pliable green leaves to the drier brown leaves needed for cigars. Eiroa said the typical barns start at around $70,000, a high enough cost that it alone turns away many smaller farms.

As an alternative, the partnership will work on using refrigerated containers instead of building a ground-up tobacco barn. He also hopes that these containers will reduce the amount of time the tobacco spends hanging in these barns, potentially cutting the time spent by nearly half.

The partnership includes the creation of the CLE Research Lab, which will be at an FIU property located in Redlands, Fla., about 20 miles outside of Miami. Eiroa wasn’t sure when they would start work in Redlands, but said that the first step would include making one of these container barns before eventually planting tobacco.

From there, the plan is to plant both wrapper and filler tobacco as a test. Eiroa said the long-term goal is to make it so the cost of growing tobacco would be the same regardless of whether the tobacco is grown in the U.S. or Central America. That could include introducing more technology into the farms.

Daphne K. Sugino Souffront, Ph.D, and Jordan Prats, a Ph.D candidate, will lead the work at the CLE Research Lab.

Eiroa declined to discuss the financials of the partnership.

This is the latest cigar partnership from FIU, a public university in Miami.

Since late last year, FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management has hosted events with the Premium Cigar Association, the most recent of which took place last week.