The Dominican Tobacco Institute (Intabaco) is projecting that total cigar exports will reap US$600 million by year’s end. Juan Francisco Caraballo, director general of Intabaco said that 3.5 billion cigars were exported last year, and that the forecast for this year 4 billion, as reported in Diario Libre. He said that tobacco is now the country’s main cash crop and that 89% of cigars are machine rolled, the rest being the premium hand-rolled variety.
http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/09/22/i802341_exportacin-cigarros-supera-us600-millones.html