Here we go. Procigar again. The Dominican tobacco world is getting together again to celebrate one more year, and – due to the dates – , the “Great Harvest Party”. Because February is harvest time. Some „vegas“ have already begun to bring their leaves to the curing barns and you can see, on both sides of the road, plants of all sizes with the stems already stripped of the lower leaves, naked from the waist down. It doesn’t help much that, at times, it is raining in Santiago: tobacco cannot be harvested on rainy days, but neither should it be left to ripen attached to the stalk.
So Procigar starts at harvest time. And it is very well thought out, because this way the festival attendees, who come from many countries around the world, whether they are tobacco professionals or not, have the opportunity to still see tobacco in the field. And from there, from the farm to the pre-industry and, finally, to the factory. Procigar is a great opportunity to understand more deeply the magic, almost the miracle, of the intricate hundredfold manual process of tobacco. And yes, there are dinners afterwards, lots of people to greet, lots of cigars to smoke and lots of rum to drink.
There is a party. Lots of partying, no doubt, but not only that. Just last night, at the Residence Inn by Marriot Hotel in Santiago de los Caballeros, was the cocktail party to kick off the festival. It is the reunion, together again, as the president of Procigar, Litto Gómez, said: “Here we are, one more year, for all of you, because you are the best” and gave way to a colorful fireworks show.
The Procigar kick-off party is the contact point. Previously, festival attendees have been able to go to La Romana, in the east of the country, to take a tour of the Tabacalera de García factory and even a cigar tasting activity on the beach, in Victoria Island. But the heart of Dominican tobacco is Santiago de los Caballeros, which they call, precisely, Ciudad Corazón (Heart City). This is where most of the industry is located, in the capital of the Cibao Valley, where most of the Dominican tobacco is harvested.
Starting today, in addition to the welcome party, which, later on, some people extend a lot (but a lot) at the Saga restaurant, we have three visits to fields, pre-industry and factory, the tobacco seminar, always interesting, and three more parties: the welcome party, the attractive white party at the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration and the gala dinner, with the auction of humidors.
Procigar has already begun and has once again filled up with tobacco lovers, professionals and amateurs, from all over the world to celebrate the new harvest of Dominican tobacco. A harvest that is always abundant, because between the event boxes and the cigars you get here and there, I can assure you that all Procigar attendees go home with between one hundred and two hundred cigars, and many of them can only be obtained here, coming to Procigar. Is it or is it not a good harvest?
