Cigar legend Robaina dies at 91

Cuban tobacco grower Alejandro Robaina, an international symbol of the island's cigar-making prowess, has died at 91.

Cuban state television announced his death and the state tobacco concern Habanos, which produces the Robaina brand cigar, said on its website that he was the "victim of a sombre illness".

The only Cuban grower with a cigar brand named after him, Mr Robaina travelled for decades as an unofficial global ambassador for the island's stogies.

Into his final days, he could be found smoking cigars in a rocking chair on his front port in San Luis, in westernmost Pinar de Rio province.

He worked the fields in Vuelta Abajo, Cuba's most-famous cigar-growing region, where Habanos - a joint venture between the communist government and Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group - produced Robainas.

Born in the town of Alquizar in 1919, Mr Robaina began working his family's fields from the time he was 10. He remained in Cuba when that land was nationalised after the revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and brought Fidel Castro to power on New Year's Day 1959.

Mr Robaina became famous for the top-quality tobacco he helped produce and was honoured numerous times by the Castro government.

"He left an indelible mark on the history of Cuban tobacco," Havana's Radio Reloj said.