Earlier this year, Illusione quietly began shifting production of its core Illusione line, often referred to as Original Document, and Illusione Maduro to Tabacos Valle de Jalapa S.A. (TABSA), the Estelí, Nicaragua-based factory responsible for the last three Singularés, *R* Rothchildes and the recently-announced *G* Gigantes.

News of the move was first reported by Cigar Insider.

As recently as two years ago, all of Illusione’s production was at Raíces Cubanas in Honduras, but since since the release of the Singularé in 2012, Dion Giolito has turned more to TABSA, which is owned by Eduardo Fernández, who also is the principle of AGANORSA S.A., a large Nicaraguan tobacco growing operation.

“I’m in Nicaragua every six weeks at Aganorsa operations constantly reviewing tobacco as it comes ready to use,” said Giolito, who owns Illusione, told halfwheel. “As the factory matured, manufacturing got better and more consistent at TABSA. It just made practical and logistical sense to use TABSA as a tool to help fulfill our purchase orders on certain brands in our portfolio, where we find ourselves light on product from time to time.”

Production of Cruzado, Epernay and ULTRA will remain at Raíces Cubanas.

Illusione has long been proud of its use of AGANORSA tobacco at Raíces, this move puts the production of those blends even further under the Nicaraguan company’s responsibility.

While AGANORSA has provided tobacco for brands produced at Raíces, Eduardo Fernández is occasionally incorrectly named as the owner of the Danlí-based factory. It is owned by the Endemaño family. Fernández himself was once a client before moving production of his own Casa Fernández brand to TABSA shortly after the factory was opened.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.