Cigar Manufacturers and Daniel Ortega
Due to the recent election of Daniel Ortega as President of Nicaragua, many cigar manufacturers have taken a "wait and see" attitude as to his positions. Will Ortega affect this very important industry?
Brands that we know - Padron, Perdomo, Oliva, Torano, CAO, Plasencia, Drew Estates, Joya de Nicaragua - employ thousands from growing to finishing product. Cigars are a large part of Nicaragua's economy.
At this point, all cigar manufacturers remain status quo and the continue to make great cigars. Let's hope for the best.
By Al Remp, product specialist and trainer, Thompson Cigar.
posted by Cigar Blog Moderator @ 10:38 AM
2 Comments:
At 11:42 AM,
Anonymous said…
Well, it can likely only be some degree of a bad thing.
Last time Ortega was in power was 1979-90. During his reign inflation ranged 35.1-3,004.1% with a mid-year high in 1987 of 13,109.5% (according to the IMF).
Ortega is from the Sandanista party which voted against the adoption of CAFTA. Ortega is chums with Chavez of Venezuela and he and Cuba have been courting Ortega to link up with ALBA (a political-economic agreement between Venzuela-Boliva-Cuba).
IMF ranks Nicaragua as Latin America's second poorest economy after Haiti and Tranparency International ranks Nicaragua as the second most corrupt Central American country behind Honduras.
Status quo is a political 'no comment'. The reality is our Padrons are probably going to cost more.
Shit, electing Ortega sounds like about as good of an idea as turning Congress to blue.
At 11:44 AM,
Anonymous said…
The last time this happened, Padron moved to Honduras. They were a much smaller company then, of course, but what are the chances of the big Nicaraguan companies simply hopping the border from Esteli to Danli if their holdings are threatened?
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