Cigar Aficionado

Oliva Cigars recently had the grand opening for its new tobacco processing center called Las Mesitas, located near the Nicaraguan cigarmaking capital of Estelí. Oliva and its parent company Vandermarliere Family of Cigars say this new facility will be a key part of the company’s tobacco storing, processing and fermenting for Tabolisa, the factory where Oliva makes its cigars. 

The new center, which opened in January, is key to Oliva’s expansion. The company now makes around 40 million cigars a year, making it one of the bigger producers of cigars in Nicaragua, which produces more cigars for the United States than any other country. 

“As manufacturers of the world’s finest cigars, we are also guardians of quality, on an everlasting quest to find perfection. We are now very well equipped for that mission,” said Fred Vandermarliere, owner of Vandermarliere Family of Cigars. 

Las Mesitas joins another Oliva tobacco processing center, called Las Llantas, located in Condega, which was built at the end of 2021. The company says the two together will become “the backbone of a philosophy entirely based on the relentless pursuit for quality and a commitment to empower local communities.” 

Las Mesitas took roughly two years to complete, as construction began in the fall of 2020. It’s considerably large, the building (including outbuildings and offices) measuring 17,000 square meters, or about 182,000 square feet. It’s capable of fermenting more than 240 pilones of tobacco at one time. It has 320 workers, and allows for 24/7 monitoring of the tobacco conditions inside.

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