Dominican Republic produced more than 1.7 billion cigars for the 2012-2013 cigar harvest, as reported in Diario Libre. Dominican Tobacco Institute director Juan Francisco Caraballo says that cigar exports for the period generated US$577.3 million for the country. Caraballo says there is a new demand in the US market for machine-produced cigars made with local tobacco. The US is the lead market for Dominican cigars. Around 5,500 tobacco producers employ 45,000 farm workers on the tobacco plantations, but the total production is responsible for around 108,935 jobs.
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