BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- China Tobacco Sichuan Industrial Co., Ltd. (China Tobacco Sichuan) has recently unveiled its "China Cigar Bank" which is said to boast the largest cigar care and storage area in Asia of over 2,400 square meters.
Located in Shifang City of southwest China's Sichuan Province, the cigar bank stores various cigars in types and value, and eyes for standardized, high-quality cigar conservation.
The bank mostly stores the company's high-end brand, the Great Wall Cigar, especially top-quality ones from "Hao", "Yue", "Chang" and "Chun", the four well-known schools of cigar rolling with founders being Liu Hao, Li Qiuyue, Liu Changyong and Liu Wanchun.
Temperature, humidity, humidor as well as constant caring are all essential for cigar conservation, and some celebrities also put their collections here, showing confidence in the cigar bank's professionalism, according to a staff working at the cigar bank.
It is noted that China Tobacco Sichuan initiated a project to construct a Chinese-style cigar category in March of 2019, under which it had built cigar fermentation laboratory in cooperation with research institutions such as Jiangnan University, Henan Agricultural University, Sichuan Agricultural University and Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute, working on cigar materials, process and technology, raw material fermentation and finished product storage. Quite a few research achievements have been applied to production.
The company also cooperates with world leading players such as Agio and Tabacalera SLU (Altadis of ITG), and its Great Wall Cigar is the first Chinese cigar brand that received a 95-point rating based on a 100-point ranking system by the Cigar Journal in Europe.
Commercial sales of China Tobacco Sichuan's hand-made cigars has exceeded 5.7 million this year, according to a source with the company.
The company said it is heading towards high-quality development and will transform itself from a traditional tobacco manufacturer to a premium lifestyle service provider. (Edited by Niu Huizhe with Xinhua Silk Road, niuhuizhe@xinhua.org)
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