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nomic heart of the Dominican Republic, the
Procigar festival adopts an intentionally militant
stance. “We want to make the voice of the
producers heard, in view of their engagement
for quality and pleasure” declared the president
Hendrik Kelner at the opening of this new
edition of the Festival.
Two scourges threaten cigars in the Dominican
Republic like in all other producing countries;
Cuba, Honduras or Nicaragua. One is a small
insect that devours nicotine: the Lasioderma
serricorne. Frequent treatments, however, of
the tobacco during storage can eradicate them
without any damage of the product. Because
each one of these crates of 95 pounds of
tobacco that has been harvested, dried and
wrapped up costs between six and twelve
thousand dollars. A treasure for the producers
worth 43 million dollars for Davidoff, one of
the main Dominican producers. The other is
a more insidious illness and which is much
harder to prevent: forgery. On the Puerto Plata
beach, the long stretch of white sand on the
Atlantic side of the Dominican Republic on
which hawkers are even more frequent than
the planes bringing in tourists to discover the
charming attractions of the island. With a nonchalant
and swaggering gait, they try to tempt
the holiday goers from the most beautiful
hotels, such as the Casa Colonial, with shimmering
fabrics, fashionable sunglasses or
magnificent cigar boxes of which the profusion
of the labels is a lure and the price a bait.
To try and fight this phenomenon, the producers
have united under the Pro Cigar banner
and have committed themselves over the
last few years to take action and protect their
products and their brands, but especially to
increase the quality of the finished product
and to carry out a reevaluation of jobs in the
entire sector. “Our response, is to treat the
tobacco producers better and to encourage better
methods of cultivation by using modern
technology. Farmers must make a profit! We
want to reinforce selection and especially treat
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