From Green to Gold

Curing the harvested tobacco gives the leaf its distinctive characteristic traits and removes the moisture out of it. Curing determines the leaf color, texture, aroma and flavor. Depending on the variety of tobacco, four basic curing methods can be distinguished as

1)Flue-cured

Barns have flues which run from external fed fire boxes, which heat cures the tobacco without exposing it to smoke, slowly raising the temperature over the course of the curing process. This method results in a higher sugar content in the leaves compared to air-curing, as the heat from the hot air speeds up the breakdown of complex sugars into simpler sugars.

2)Fire-cured

Tobacco is hung in large barns where hardwoods are kept on continuous or intermittent low smolder. Fire curing not only induces unique smokey flavor to the leaves but also makes it relatively primed for combustion

3)Sun-cured

Tobacco is placed in the sun uncovered and is dried out naturally. Sun-curing does not involve controlling air temperature or humidity, but it is fairly similar to flue-curing in that the enzymatic processes are much more rapidly stopped than in air-curing. Higher temperatures rapidly inactivate the sugar metabolism, but allow the degradation of starch which is a result of high sugar content compared to air-cured varieties.

4)Air-cured

Leaves are hung in a well-ventilated barns with no energy source for heating. This is a traditional curing method where the leaves are allowed to dry naturally over a period of several weeks to several months. This method results in a lower sugar content in the leaves compared to other curing methods.

The Process

Grading:

Cured leaves are manually sorted into homogeneously lots based on plants stalk position, quality & color as per Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI) grade standards and as well as International grading standards depending on the type of market.

Threshing:

KKME warehouse is located at the epicenter of FCV producing belt and is less than 30 Km from any of four major threshing plants. Here the lamina is separated from the stem and the lamina is re-dried to ensure uniform and homogenized moisture through out the lot. Most of the graded tobacco is subjected to threshing however some quantity is manually stripped for specific applications. Even if the order requirement is limited to the following, re-drying and conditioning is must to ensure optimum safe storage moisture content.

• FHS: Full Hand Strips

• HS: Hand Strips (25% Stem in Leaf)

• SLL: Straight Laid Leaf

Packing:

Several materials are used to pack the re-dried tobacco products. Re-dried threshed lamina(RTL) is normally packed in CFB cartons and bale board packs in net sizes of 180 to 200 kgs. Once packed the cartons are shipped to the client’s warehouse/plant.