Tobacco

Tobacco leaves feature on the country’s coat of arms, and Prilep has been famous for its aromatic Oriental tobacco for more than a century.

An annual of the nightshade family, growing 1–2 m tall in cultivation, with large leaves sticky with glands and pink, tubular flowers. The leaves contain nicotine – an alkaloid that protects the plant from insects. The species comes from South America and reached Europe in the 16th century. In Macedonia mainly small-leaved varieties of Oriental tobacco are grown, prized in cigarette blends; the leaves are sun-dried on long strings hung up beside the houses.

Significance in the country

Tobacco is one of Macedonia’s most important crops – its leaves, together with ears of wheat and poppy heads, form the wreath on the national coat of arms. The Tobacco Institute has operated in Prilep since 1924, and strings of drying leaves beside the houses are a typical summer sight in Pelagonia.

Where it grows

Above all on the Pelagonia plain around Prilep and Bitola; also grown in the east of the country – around Radoviš, Štip and Kavadarci.

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