INDUSTRY NEWS
Late yesterday afternoon, September 4th, a tobacco sorting facility of Aganorsa Leaf (or “preindustrias” as they are casually called) caught fire and was largely destroyed. Firefighters and the army responded to fight the blaze at the facility in La Barranca, which is located just south of Estelí along the Panamerican Highway. Officials have yet to determine the cause of the fire.
Terrence Reilly, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Aganorsa Leaf stated, “Yesterday one of our preindustrias caught fire. No one was hurt, and although this is a great loss, we are fortunate to have other facilities with plenty of tobacco to minimize the impact on our operations.”
According to one eye witness, approximately 20 bales of tobacco were saved from the blaze, removed by individuals from the facility before the flames could reach them.
Unfortunately, facility fires are not especially rare in the industry. Just days ago on Monday, Sept 2nd another fire damaged Inetab-Kaubeck, Universal Leaf’s tobacco processing facility in Moca, Dominican Republic.