Workers making bundles of tobacco in a tobacco warehouse in Xanthi

Photograph of a tobacco warehouse in Xanthi at the beginning of the last century, with people of diverse age groups and economic backgrounds. In the foreground, young tobacco workers, cross-legged on mats on the floor, are making bundles. In other words, they are selecting the raw tobacco leaves and assembling them into bales, depending on their quality. Behind them are seated tobacconists, with overseers standing in the background.
“The integrated production process related to the “eastern tobaccos”… refers to… the integrated industrialization process of tobacco leaves into a “commercial” bale, mainly intended for the product export and its use by the global tobacco industries”.

Creator: unknown (1919)
Source: Dimitris Mavridis private collection