In the city of Esteli, Nicaragua, workers prepare pallets of tobacco for sorting and distribution at the Plasencia factory. The plastic’s yellow color comes from years of tobacco in the facility.
A pallet of sorted fanta tobacco leaves the warehouse holding area, to later be temperature controlled and possibly aged. These leaves are eventually made into cigars.
Looking down a long hallway in Plasencia’s tobacco factory, boxes are stacked from floor to ceiling, full of packaged cigars ready for export. Each brand has a distinct flavor, size, and package.
Large burlap sacks are stacked from floor to ceiling in a temperature-controlled room. Different sack and parchment label colors help distinguish between tobaccos - some are aged in this room for 30 years before the cigar rolling process takes place.
Floor managers are a critical part of the tobacco factory’s workflow. At every part of the process, from tobacco sorting to final distribution, you can find at least two to three people double-checking work to maintain quality and efficiency.
After sorting a pile of tobacco, factory workers take their materials to the back of a large factory room for quality check and weighing. A woman walks back to her station with her approved pile.
In a smaller room to the side of a main hallway, a factory worker gathers distinct piles of sorted tobacco leaf. These piles are then tied together and transported elsewhere in the factory.
Personalizing a workstation is part of normal life within Plasencia’s 5,000 person factory. There are often headphones, name plates, family photos and candies adorning or tucked away inside every work station. In this room where cigars are finally rolled, it’s important to remember whose station belongs to who.
A massive stack of tobacco cigars sits in the packaging and distribution area of the factory. Long tables of women sit in these rooms, carefully packaging each brand in distinct materials.
One of the two nurses who works at the factory logs information for the day. Of all the businesses in Esteli, Plasencia is known to have some of the more strict COVID-19 protocols in the area.