Chinese companies want to buy tobacco in the Dominican Republic

Potential. ADEPE highlights the country’s potential to increase planting.

Chinese investors are negotiating with Dominican producers to purchase tobacco produced in the country, which will significantly boost exports from the Dominican Republic, which is already the leading exporter of cigars in the world.
They have submitted a quotation for the first purchase of 365 tons of tobacco, representing about 16 vans.

This was revealed by the directors of the Asociación de Desarrollo de la Provincia Espaillat (ADEPE) César Iván Rosario, president; Rita Pantaleón, executive director; Edy Peña, treasurer, and José Guillermo López, member of the Board of Directors, during their participation as guests in HOY’s Encuentro Económico.

They indicated that only in the municipal district of San Victor, belonging to Moca, Espaillat province, some 8,000 tareas of tobacco are being planted, harvesting some 16,000 quintals, which represent the income of some RD$160 million in about four months.

They emphasized that one of the leading tobacco varieties planted in this zone is the so-called Olor Dominicano, which already has a kind of “Denomination of Origin” and is used by the large international cigar-producing consortiums operating in the country for the manufacture of their best blends.

They said that there are Chinese companies interested in this variety harvested in the municipal district of San Victor.

They said that if it is possible to do business with Chinese investors, it will achieve a great impulse in the tobacco sector.

He pointed out that the business would be done under contract.

Production

José Guillermo López, a member of the Board of Directors of ADEPE, a tobacco producer, indicated that the country is cultivating some 140,000 tareas, and cigars produced in the Dominican Republic are being exported to 142 countries.

He said that there are lands with a tremendous vocation for tobacco cultivation in the country, including the lands of the entire southern region and border areas.

“We have the land capacity to plant four or five times more than what is being planted, without counting the potential of the South, because the South has potential, even more than the Cibao,” said the producer.

He said that one of the problems that the southern region had was the water issue; however, with the investments in the construction of irrigation canals that have been made in recent years, this is no longer a problem.