Cássio Filter
It isnot easy togo to the farm
of the Pontarolo family. Through one
of the hundreds of dirt roads that lead to BR-373, along the municipality of Guami-
ranga,inParaná,onehastodriveforaround25kilometers,amidhillsandvalleysand
different geographic features. But the effort is rewarded by the impressive scenario.
Beside thehousewhereVislande, hiswifeRoseni anddaughter Sílvia, 12, live, the
curing barns for drying their tobacco suggest how big the fields are, since so many
furnaces are required. On average, at every season, 150 tons are cured, and they
have been supporting the clan since 1979, when they built the first curing structure.
Now, Vislande, 52, coordinates the entire production. He inherited from his father
hispassionforthecrop.Withthemoneyderivedfromtobacco,hebegantobuystretch-
es of land from the neighbors or in localities he deemed appropriate for investments.
That is how he acquired the 75 hectares, 42.5 of themdevoted to tobacco. Of the 650
thousandplantscultivatedinthe2017/18cropyear,420thousandhewilladministrate
withhiswife. The remaininghectares areunder the responsibilityof tenant farmers.
The incomparable numbers that involve a crop of this dimension require a
everywhere
InGuamiranga (PR), obstinacy for quality is the fertilizer
for Pantarolo’s 650 thousand tobacco plants, inone of the
biggest tobacco fields in the Country
very efficient administration, much above aver-
age. Cost control must include everything, see-
ing that during the harvest and grading season,
some 25 people are usually involved.
About the possibility of shifting to other
crops or invest more on diversification, chances
are almost nil, the farmer concedes, in spite of
the fact that there are considerable plantations
of soybean and wheat in the surrounding farms.
“With tobacco we know exactly how much we
can earn. It is good income and it is possible to
program our life”, he emphasizes. In the past,
“we invested inbeans and in corn. It was, as they
say, six of one, and half of the other: my money
remained still, waiting for prices to go up”.
Obstinacy for quality is a major trait of Vis-
lande’s production. “As time went by, I learned
that for higher profits from tobacco, the focus
must be on quality”, he comments. “It is just
like everything in life. If one does things right,
the reward is bigger. As soon as I started focus-
ing on quality, things improved greatly”.
GUAMIRANGA
– It is a small town in
Paraná, near Prudentópolis and Ponta Gros-
sa, with approximately 8.5 thousand people.
The economy is almost exclusively based on
agriculture, where tobacco is the highlight.
Tobacco
“If it comes to deriving
higher income from
tobacco, the focus must
be on quality”, he says
95
TABACO EMGUAMIRANGA
Área Colhida
3,2mil hectares
Quantidade produzida
6,3mil toneladas
Rendimentomédio
1,97 tonelada/hectare
Valor da produção
R$ 45,4milhões
Fonte: InstitutoBrasileirodeGeografiaeEstatística(IBGE).
TOBACCO INGUAMIRANGA
Planted area
3.2 thousandhectares
Amount produced
6.3 thousand tons
Average productivity
1.97 tons/hectare
Value of the crop
R$ 45.4million
Source:Brazilian InstituteofGeographyandStatistics(IBGE).
