Honduras orders factories to close again
Honduras orders factories to close again. The second wave of infections with the covid-19 virus is forcing the Honduran government to take steps. One of those steps is that the whole El Paraiso area is back to phase zero. El Paraiso is the region surrounding Danli, the epicenter of the Honduran tobacco industry. As of Wednesday, all cigar factories are closed.
The new ‘phase zero’ will go into effect on July 22nd. In phase zero, only pharmacies, supermarkets, and gas stations are allowed to open. Agriculture is allowed to continue to, the work on the tobacco fields won’t be interrupted. But the production of cigars comes to a halt again.
Second shutdown
Earlier this year, Honduras was the first cigar production country to impose mandatory closedowns. But the government also made sure that business owners paid employees during the mandatory shut-down. Back in March, the Honduran government said phase zero would take 15 days minimum. It lasted over seven weeks. This time another minimum time frame of 15 days is mentioned. From the big 4 cigar producing countries, Honduras is the country that imposed the strongest anti-pandemic measures.
Small and large
Honduras, and mainly El Paraiso is the home of many cigar manufacturers. Large and small. The city is located in the south, near the Nicaraguan border. General Cigars/Scandinavian Tobacco Group has a production facility in Honduras. Davidoff makes Camacho in Honduras. The Plasencia family has a large factory where the Honduran cigars of Rocky Patel are produced. But the area is also home to smaller, independent factories. Such as Raices Cubanas, known from Alec Bradley and some Illusione cigars. Oscar Valladares has a factory just like Dr. Gaby Kafie. Maya Selva produces cigar in the area, just like Gran Habano. There there is the Eiroa family. Christian and the Asylum, CLE, Eiroa First 20 years. But also his father and brother with El Aladino. And there are more, but we can’t mention them all.
Several factories aren’t waiting for the mandatory date of July 22nd and closed shop already. Other factories are producing until the last moment to make up for lost production time earlier this year. But with the second close-down, it is expected that the total Honduran cigar production and export will drop.
