I had the pleasure of visiting a few well known factorías en la RD, including the Cathedral del Tabacco from Fuente.
The material prima that is currently processed ranges from 6 to 12 years old.
Hence when going to market they are ready to smoke, much more so than the Cuban cigars.
The Cuban cigars have more legs in aging simply because the are younger when brought to market.
Prior to the mid 90’s this was also the case for Cuban cigars.