Yahoo! By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer. Sun Feb
24, 5:27 PM ET
Tobacco sellers packed their display cases with box upon box of Cuba's
finest cigars in anticipation of this week's annual Habano Festival and
the onslaught of foreigners willing to pay top dollar for the perfect smoke.
For five days starting Monday, more than 600 people from 47 countries are
expected to converge on Cuba to celebrate the communist nation's world-famous
tobacco.
Cuba's cigars are also among the world's most expensive. A box of 25 Cohiba "esplendidos"
costs $383.75 at one of Havana's many tobacco retail shops.
It's a luxury most Cubans cannot afford in a country where the average
monthly government salary is a little less than $10. Instead, Cuban smokers get
four cigars sometimes of dubious quality on their monthly
government ration.
"I don't care about the brand," said retired chauffeur Francisco
Rodriguez, puffing away on a cigar as he sat on a park bench. "This costs a
peso (a few cents) and it's good," said Rodriguez, 68.
Taking advantage of the growing foreign interest in Cuban cigars, government
officials began organizing luxurious dinners, cigar taste tests and plantation
visits in an annual event baptized in 1999 as the Habano Festival.
The dinners alone have spurred a profit of about $3 million over the last
few years, said Ana Lopez, marketing director for the Cuban cigar company
Habanos S.A.
Jean Paul Kauffmann, a French writer and winner of the 1999 festival's
Habano Man of the Year award, says Cuban cigars have improved in the last seven
or eight years.
"One has to admit it. The difference in quality is enormous," he
said.
During his years of sojourning in Cuba, Kauffmann developed the publication
Havanoscope, which annually classifies more than 200 Cuban cigars from
the mediocre to the exquisite.
Published in France, Havanoscope has become the European cigar Bible. At
least 70 percent of the Cuban cigar exports go to Europe. The other 30 percent
is divided among other world markets, including the Middle East, Asia and
Canada.
The U.S. trade embargo on communist Cuba prohibits the sales of Cuban cigars
in the United States.
Last year, Cuba produced 153 million cigars for export, up from 118 million
the previous year. Habanos S.A., a mixed enterprise owned 50 percent by the
Cuban government and 50 percent by the French-Spanish company Altadis, still has
not revealed its export and profit figures for the last 12 months.
Cuba's cigar industry appears to be thriving despite the loss of one key
former smoker President Fidel Castro.
Castro, who for many years carried a lit cigar in his hand, quit smoking in
1986 during a national health campaign. Still, he traditionally attends the
Habano Festival.
"Is it true that he never smoked again? As for me, I haven't given it
up," said Castro's older brother, Ramon Castro.
He said he has smoked 65 of his 77 years, learning the habit from his father
when he was only 12 years old. "And I haven't gotten rid of the vice." |