Davidoff International opens a new plant with capacity to produce up to 30 million cigars a year this Wednesday. Davidoff has been producing cigars in the DR for the past nine years. Davidoff International president Ernest Schneider visited Santiago de los Caballeros for the opening of the new plant where some 500 tobacco rollers will be employed. He was accompanied by 34 journalists. Schneider says that Dominican tobacco is the best alternative to Cuban tobacco today. He explained that the lighter taste of Dominican cigars is preferred by consumers in the 25-40 age brackets. He said that the company’s cigars are in fashion now, and attribute the success of the company to this. Present at one of the events held to open the new plant, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Latorre said that the DR is the world’s leading exporter of cigars, selling 400 million cigars in 1997, of which 90% were sold to the US market. He said that while Dominican cigar exports in 1996 amounted to US$135 million, these more than doubled in 1997 to US$289 million. He explained that tobacco has become the main money crop. Sugar exports amounted to US$173 million last year.
