Cuba's famed cigar industry is heating up again

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Cuba's famed cigar industry is heating up again
International downturn, smoking bans have hurt sales, but Asian demand is making it up and then some
By Marc Frank
Reuters
updated 6/14/2011 1:24:28 PM ET 2011-06-14T17:24:28

HAVANA — Production of Cuban cigars and tobacco leaf are on the rise after falling on hard times in the country famed for its "puros" due to smoking bans and the international financial crisis, according to local reports.

The dexterous fingers of Cuba's cigar makers rolled out 81.5 million of the much sought-after smokes last year, compared with 75.4 million in 2009, according to a report released by the National Statistics Office on its Web page.

Cuba's finest tobacco leaf is grown and cured in western-most Pinar del Rio province where the just-concluded harvest produced 25.4 million leaves, according to local radio reports, compared with the previous year's 22.4 million leaves.

While the figures are up, they are still well below 2008 when Cuba produced just over 100 million cigars for export and Pinar del Rio's tobacco harvest totaled 26 million leaves.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43397342/ns/business-world_business/

[Sonoman]

1. I know a guy in Atlanta...

and he is married to a Cubanista.

He gets around it all.

Makes a ton of money.

Sonoman

[JohnnyRingo]

2. Our embargo against Cuba is an outdated hissy fit that rivals that of the Hatfields & McCoyss

No one today remembers exactly what the feud was about except that it had something to do with us being dissed a long time ago, and we have to keep fighting to save face for what they did to our grandmother.

Trust me, when Fidel kicks the bucket, his brother Raul will be introduced as the anti-Communist who wants free trade and democracy. Don't expect free elections by a long shot, but his capitalist views will seek contracts with Disney, Steve Wynn, and Sandals to bring American investors into the profitable mindset of Cuba as a Caribbean get-away. "Come here on a cruise ship, gamble, and swim our beautiful beaches, but leave your Petro-dollars in the National Bank of Havana" will be the concept that lobbyists will use to sway US politicians to lift the embargo and allow American companies to flourish in the frontier paradise of post-Fidel Cuba. ...After all, our enemy Castro is dead.

American resorts and cruise lines have been waiting for the Che' idealist to die for years and have already begun sculpting Raul into their corporate stooge. Just recently, Fidel's brother made mention that Cuba has to entertain the 21st century notion that concessions to socialism have to be made to bring the country an influx of foreign capital.

Frankly, I think he's right.

[sofa king]

3. Please. I haven't had a good Cuban cigar in 20 years.

The cigar industries of Honduras and Nicaragua surpassed Cuba in every measure of quality at least that far back--they were, after all, founded by the very best Cuban producers, who left en masse in 1959.

A good chunk of what's keeping Cuba's cigar industry afloat is the very fact that they are hard to get in the United States. That adds an imaginary value to their otherwise forgettable, high-volume, low quality production. The best "Cuban" cigars of today are made from exceedingly rare Cuban-grown leaf which is shipped to the real expert curing facilities and rollers in places like Barbados and Central America, then quietly shipped back on paper so that Cigar Aficionado can spank its monkey over them.

They moment Cuba has to compete with Arturo Fuente and Juan Padron on an equal footing, they'll be relegated to the same status that Tampa Bay currently (does not) enjoy. Eventually, a Cuban wrapper will carry the same status that a wrapper from Connecticut or Cameroon does--good leaf, made into a good cigar by someone else.