Bans mean smokers light up fewer, pricier cigars
Facing public smoking bans around the world, cigar aficionados are spending more on finer smokes for the fewer opportunities they have to light up, and that boosted sales of Cuban cigars last year, makers said on Monday.
Habanos SA, a joint venture between the Cuban state and Spanish-French tobacco group Altadis, said its sales of premium hand-rolled cigars rose 8 percent to $370 million last year despite the growing bans.
Restrictions on smoking in public places now in effect in many countries, especially in bars and restaurants, have slowed unit sales, but not growth in sales value, as consumers buy more expensive cigars, Habanos Vice-President Javier Terres said.
"We expect to grow again this year. It will not be double digits, but we think the market is pretty stable," he told reporters at the start of Havana's annual cigar festival.
"We believe that smokers of premium cigars are able to find the time and the place to smoke. People are smoking less, but smoking better cigars," Terres said.
At Cuba's cigar festival for five days, cigar lovers and retailers will puff away at the world's finest cigars, tour factories to see them being rolled by hand and visit tobacco plantations outside Havana.
Moving to meet rising demand for finer cigars, Habanos is making more products with aged tobacco leaves.
In the famed Cohiba brand, the company will unveil at this week's festival the Maduro 5 line of cigars, with dark wrapper leaves aged for five years.
Agencies
(China Daily 02/28/2007 page16)
