TPE - Tobacco Plus Expo 2020

Indiana Ortez

Agrotabacos


Indiana Ortez is part of the first 100 percent Nicaraguan tobacco family. From an early age, she watched her father, Omar Ortez, work with his hands- harvesting, creating, experimenting, developing, and producing tobacco. There was an alluring quality to tobacco that drew her interest and held it into her adulthood.

She realized that if she really wanted to get involved in the business, she had to start from the beginning, and learn everything. With a hands-on approach, she began exploring the whole process of producing a cigar- the classification of raw materials, sorting leaves, bunching the filler leaves, wrapping in a binder leaf, rolling the cigars, and developing the packaging. Within Agrotabacos she now has several different responsibilities, some of which include the development of new blends, detailed quality control supervision, and the stripping process of the wrapper and binder that our company uses. Additionally, she manages the social media for our factory, embracing the medium as a new way to reach those who share her passion for the art of cigar-making.

Indiana officially works in collaboration with Ventura Cigar Company, developing exclusive blends for them, like Fathers Friends and Fire and Psyko Seven Nicaragua, which are already in the market. In addition to her work with her family’s business, she’s been putting her marketing and advertising skills to use as the Director of Digital Marketing for the Nicaraguan Tobacco Chamber since 2018. In regards to TPE’s first-ever women’s cigar panel, Indiana says, “I am honored to be a part of this panel and look forward to meeting you all.”

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