In January, Brooks Whittington and I (Charlie Minato) visited Davidoff’s operations in the Dominican Republic. It was an educational trip every day, but particularly the two days spent visiting farms, processing areas and the factories themselves. We already posted our visit to a farm in Jicomé and went through the process from seedling to barn, now we pick up at Procesadora de Tabaco Palmerajo (PTP). Davidoff’s Dominican operations fall under a company known as Tabadom Holdings, Inc. Underneath that organization are the three cigar factories, the free-trade company and PTP. As a company, PTP isn’t there to earn profits. Instead, it finances farmers that work for Davidoff, buys the tobacco they grow and then is responsible—as is implied in the procesadora part of its names—for processing the tobacco, which is then sold to the three factories. Procesadora de Tabaco Palmerajo is located in Jicomé, which is located about 15 miles west of Villa Gonzales, where Davidoff’s cigar factories are located. The building itself is somewhat reminiscent to the factories with the white walls and gold Davidoff logo. Before being stacked in pilones, hands of tobacco are fumigated The hands rest in pilones. Tobacco is organized by how it comes into PTP from ...
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