Cuba’s cigar industry isn’t ready for its Amer
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Posted On: 05/21/2016 6:02:48 PM
Cuba’s cigar industry isn’t ready for its American moment
Cuba is trying to boost cigar production in anticipation of the
end of the U.S. trade embargo, but tobacco fields lie fallow
SAN LUIS, Cuba—The fertile soil here in the Pinar del Río valley has long produced a richly flavored, slow-burning tobacco that is, without exaggeration, the envy of the world.
Some of Cuba’s best-paid workers roll the cured leaves by hand into cigars carrying the names Cohiba and Montecristo and Partagás, luxury brands as coveted by aficionados as the sparkling wines of Champagne or the single malt whiskies of Scotland.
For more than 50 years, Cuba hasn’t been able to sell its cigars to its giant neighbor to the north, the world’s largest cigar market. Now, with the U.S. moving to restore trade with Cuba, excitement is building that a great opportunity is at hand.
If the trade embargo is lifted anytime soon, however, Cuba is unlikely to be ready.
The amount of tobacco under cultivation in Cuba declined 65% between 2009 and 2014, to 21,733 acres, and annual tobacco production declined 21%, to about 20,000 tons, according to the most recent data from Cuba’s national statistics office. Cuba exported 91 million cigars in 2014, down 58% from 2006.
Cuba is trying to boost cigar production in anticipation of the
end of the U.S. trade embargo, but tobacco fields lie fallow
SAN LUIS, Cuba—The fertile soil here in the Pinar del Río valley has long produced a richly flavored, slow-burning tobacco that is, without exaggeration, the envy of the world.
Some of Cuba’s best-paid workers roll the cured leaves by hand into cigars carrying the names Cohiba and Montecristo and Partagás, luxury brands as coveted by aficionados as the sparkling wines of Champagne or the single malt whiskies of Scotland.
For more than 50 years, Cuba hasn’t been able to sell its cigars to its giant neighbor to the north, the world’s largest cigar market. Now, with the U.S. moving to restore trade with Cuba, excitement is building that a great opportunity is at hand.
If the trade embargo is lifted anytime soon, however, Cuba is unlikely to be ready.
The amount of tobacco under cultivation in Cuba declined 65% between 2009 and 2014, to 21,733 acres, and annual tobacco production declined 21%, to about 20,000 tons, according to the most recent data from Cuba’s national statistics office. Cuba exported 91 million cigars in 2014, down 58% from 2006.
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