Gilberto Oliva Sr.
Leaf broker who founded Oliva Cigar Co. in 1995 and built it into one of Nicaragua's largest manufacturers; died in December 2017 at the age of 86.
The Oliva family's tobacco history begins with Melanio Oliva, who grew leaf in Cuba from 1886. Gilberto Oliva Sr. worked for years as a leaf broker across Central America, sourcing and trading tobacco rather than making cigars, which gave him an unusually detailed knowledge of growing conditions in Nicaragua, Honduras and elsewhere before he entered manufacturing. Brokering leaf meant knowing which fields produced what, and when.
He launched a brand under his own name in 1995, shortened to Oliva the following year, and the company grew quickly, opening a large Esteli factory in July 2003. The Serie V, released in 2006, established the house at the top of the Nicaraguan market. Much of the filler came from land the family controlled in Esteli, Condega and Jalapa.
Five of his children worked in the business in growing, production, sales and administration. The company was sold to the Belgian group J. Cortes in the summer of 2016. Gilberto Oliva Sr. died in December 2017, aged 86. His path from broker to manufacturer was a common one in Central America, but few who took it built an operation of comparable size within twenty years.