Generoso Eiroa (first person on the left), the uncle of Christian Eiroa of CLE Cigar Company, has died at the age of 86. Generoso was a longtime farmer and also a tobacco broker in the later years of his life in the industry. Initially, he worked in the Cuban tobacco fields before leaving for America in the 1960s. Then he jumped around to Nicaragua, Honduras, and then landed in the Dominican Republic in the 1980s. There he worked at INETAB, part of Universal Leaf. Generoso set up a system for independent growers to contract with INETAB. The growers could then sell their tobacco for a current market set pricing and could access financing for their tobacco. That system is still going on today to help the local growers.
Later with Julio and Christian, the Eiroa name became even bigger in the industry with Camacho and then the CLE Cigar Company. Generoso was technically retired back in 2000 but still worked as a broker up to his passing.