Moving Forward in Nicaragua

Posted: December 31, 1969

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Patel walks with excitement through the dusty streets of Estelí, wearing an outfit that would look more at home in a nightclub than in a cigar factory. One factory he's working with is Tafenic, a small, five-year-old operation that seems to be straining at its walls. It has several dozen cigarmakers making a variety of smokes for eight clients, including Patel.

Not far away is Nicarao, a larger operation that's six years old. (It used to be called Nicasa.) It has about 120 rollers and bunchers, including an upstairs gallery reserved for production of Patel's cigars.

Patel is pleased with the new cigars and enjoys having the smaller factories as part of his lineup. "With these small factories, it allows us to react quickly," he says. "It's more custom. To change a factory with 300 rollers takes a long time. This allows us to be quick. We can't grow without this."

Photos by Tomas Stargardter

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