Unmanufactured tobacco is raw tobacco which has not been processed by the manufacturing companies. The latter, in fact, tend to add various additives and flavourings to tobacco and subject it to some processes, such as cutting.
Anyway, unmanufactured tobacco undergoes a “CURING” process, which determines its aromatic properties and class (air-cured Burley, flue-cured Bright Virginia, sun-cured Oriental tobacco and fire-cured Kentucky and Latakia.)
Unmanufactured tobacco has the same characteristics of the manufactured one, however, the latter is often subjected to special manufacturing techniques together with the addition of additives and flavourings, something that we wanted to avoid.
Therefore, manufacturing and cure are two very different processes.
According to the european and italian legislation, unmanufactured or raw tobacco is meant to be sold in leaves or strips (destalked leaves cut into pieces of few centimeters), it is not cut and / or ready to be smoked, therefore it is not subjected to any excise duties due to the monopoly.