The Netherlands and fine-cut tobacco
Although tobacco has never been grown on a large scale in the Netherlands the product is associated with the country as much as tulips and clogs. While windmills and dikes seem to represent some foreigners' idea of the Netherlands, over the centuries the country has also built up an enormous reputation for processing raw tobacco into high quality tobacco products. 'Imported from Holland' is a familiar sign throughout the world and at the same time a guarantee of quality.
The Dutch no need to go abroad when it comes to quality. Holland is a naturally quality-conscious nation. The Dutch do have their preferences. But whatever the product is, it has to be good. Even so few people really know all the ins and outs of tobacco and tobacco products. How the tobacco plants grow, the care devoted to them, how the tobacco is harvested and processed, the trade in tobacco and last, certainly not for the Netherlands least, the manufacture of tobacco products
Fine-cut tobacco does not grow on trees
Tobacco can be consumed in three ways. One is to use it as snuff, the second is to chew it; though both of these are done on a limited scale. Third and the most common form of tobacco consumption is smoking in the form of a cigar, cigarette, pipe and hand-rolled cigarettes. Pipe tobacco, tobacco for hand-rolled cigarettes and chewing tobacco are referred to under the collective name of 'fine-cut tobacco' because of the way in which the leaves are finely cut. This results in the characteristic long strands of tobacco, characteristic of most fine-cut tobaccos. A number of manufacturers in the Netherlands have specialised in making fine-cut tobacco. Together they constitute the Netherlands' Fine Cut Industry Association (VNK) [Vereniging Nederlandse Kerftabak Industry]. The story of fine-cut tobacco is told here. The story of tobacco as the legacy of Columbus, the minute seed that grows in the space of a few months into a man-size tobacco plant, the harvesting and the treatment that follows this, the trade and of course the work of the Dutch fine-cut tobacco manufacturers: the mixing, the cutting and the packaging.
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