CWNews
Cuban Production Down
The Financial Times has also covered this issue
Smoking bans and recession are stubbing out Cuba's cigar industry, signalling a hostile era for a product whose mystique once captivated the likes of Winston Churchill, John F Kennedy and Fidel Castro.
The latest harvest of 22.4m leaves was 14% down on last year, according to figures published this week, continuing a decline which has seen the number of cigars produced for export plunge from 217m in 2006 to 73m last year.
"There was a reduction in planting due to limitations in resources caused by the economic crisis," reported Guerrillero, a Communist party newspaper in the tobacco-growing western province of Pinar del Rio. The amount of land devoted to tobacco fell 30% last year.
A drop in the number of airline passengers has hit duty free, which comprises a quarter of sales. Anti-smoking laws have also cut sales. In January, Spain, the top export market, extended to venues such as bars and restaurants the smoking ban that already covered the likes of offices, schools, hospitals and public transport. Smoking-related illnesses kill about 50,000 Spaniards each year.
Habanos SA, a joint venture between Cuba and Imperial Tobacco Group, registered an 8% fall in overseas sales last year, said Simon Evans, an ITG spokesman. "This was largely due to the impact of the global recession on consumers. There has been an impact following the introduction of smoking bans, but this tends to be an initial dip in consumption which ameliorates over time."
Sales in the UK, a small market compared with Spain, France, Germany and Switzerland, registered a similar decline. An 8% dip compared favourably with the 11% decline across all luxury products in 2009, a figure calculated by the consulting firm Bain, said Evans.
Habanos has created the Julieta, a smaller, milder version of the Romeo y Julieta cigar, to lure female smokers.
Cuban premium bands such as Montecristo, Cohiba and Partagás dominate world market share with 70% of sales. Even in the US, which has banned nearly all trade with the communist state since 1962, Cuban stogies find a way in.
Pinar del Rio's humidity and slightly sandy soil proves an ideal environment for the kinds of tobacco used in Cuban cigars. Leaves are fermented at least twice and aged for months, even years. Two types of leaves used in Cohibas, a flagship brand founded in 1966 at Castro's behest, are fermented a third time for extra flavour.
Connoisseurs say Nicaraguan and Honduran cigars which emulate Cuban hand-rolling techniques can be equally smooth, but lack the romanticism of those from the Caribbean island.
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• This article was amended on 23 June 2010. The original suggested that Spain's basic smoking ban was introduced this year. This has been corrected.
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