New pressures on a straining industry<\/h2>\n
Still, tobacco remains Cuba’s top export, and in 2024, its government reported record revenue from its sale: nearly $827m.<\/p>\n
Lloyd Smith explained that the demand is linked to prestige. Around the globe, Habanos are considered a symbol of luxury.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people, when they think of the cigar, they automatically think of Cuban cigars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That reputation for exclusivity has been bolstered, in part, by the fact that Cuban cigars are illegal in the US due to a longstanding embargo.<\/p>\n
The trade restrictions were largely a response to the 1959 Cuban Revolution, which ushered in the island’s communist government.<\/p>\n
The new regime quickly nationalised the island’s industries, much to the ire of US authorities.<\/p>\n
Traditional tobacco brands like Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta fell under state control, and new products were launched. They included the premium cigar brand Cohiba, a favourite of the late Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.<\/p>\n But experts say the US blockade has exacerbated the woes of a cigar industry that has faced multiple supply-side shocks in recent years.<\/p>\n In September 2022, Hurricane Ian ravaged Pinar del Rio, damaging as many as 90 percent of the province\u2019s tobacco curing barns, where the leaves are dried.<\/p>\n That season saw just 5,150 hectares (13,725 acres) of tobacco planted, the lowest level since records began. Tobacco growth has remained sluggish in the years since.<\/p>\n Just last month, the Cuban government announced it had failed to meet its target for the 2025-2026 growing season, set at 12,152 hectares (30,028 acres). That goal had already been revised down in September due to heavy rains.<\/p>\n Those crises have lowered cigar supplies, both domestically and abroad.<\/p>\n In 2024, the island exported 50 million cigars, little more than half of the 93.9 million shipped abroad in 2018, according to Tabacuba, the state-owned tobacco company.<\/p>\n While Tabacuba has not shared data from the past year, industry insiders say exports have slowed even further in recent months.<\/p>\n Some cigar sellers have not received shipments of Habanos since last year, says Lloyd Smith, while others are getting smaller deliveries less often.<\/p>\n Chetan Seth, the president of India\u2019s only Cuban cigar importer, Cingari, told Al Jazeera that \u201cinternational logistics have slowed down the delivery of cigars\u201d.<\/p>\n But, he added, \u201cstocks are available”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n New pressures on a straining industry Still, tobacco remains Cuba’s top export, and in 2024, its government reported record revenue from its sale: nearly $827m. Lloyd Smith explained that the demand is linked to prestige. Around the globe, Habanos are considered a symbol of luxury. \u201cA lot of people, when they think of the cigar, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/DSC02729-1776279555.jpg?w=770&quality=80\")
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