By Jay Amberg Bloomberg Lifestyles . Cigar News. Bloomberg.com. Thu, 25 May 2000, 12:28pm EDT
Havana, May 16 -- An economic expert in Cuba's tobacco industry said the increasing availability of counterfeit Cuban cigars and a decline in the quality of legitimate handmade cigars has caused a shift in demand, according to a report on
CubaNet News Inc.
Leonardo Rosales, identified by CubaNet News as a technical expert in Cuba's tobacco industry, said foreign tobacco merchants are showing an increased preference for cured and packed tobacco leaf instead of finished cigars.
Cured and packed leaf represents the raw material called filler tobacco, binder tobacco and wrapper leaf. In the hands of a torcedor (cigar roller), these components are made into a cigar.
Rosales said the shift in demand from finished cigars to leaf has to do with ``the decreasing quality of cigars as well as the increasing availability of counterfeit cigars made in clandestine factories.''
In January, Cuba began closing some of its most prestigious cigar factories because of tobacco leaf shortages, mostly cigar wrapper leaf.
The shortages were attributed to a poor harvest, blue mold disease, malfunctions in new leaf-drying equipment and theft.
Foreign cigar merchants in Havana in February and March noted that while Havana's cigar factories were closing or on a limited work schedule, the number of counterfeit cigars offered for sale on the city's streets had increased.
To foil counterfeiters, Habanos SA, Cuba's global marketer and distributor for its cigars, has introduced a new ``warranty seal.'' The seal is usually affixed to each box of genuine Cuban cigars.
The seal, actually a tax stamp in use since 1912, uses modern micro printing, a hidden ultra violet watermark and serial numbers printed in red to make it easier for consumers to identify legitimate Habanos SA boxes.
Rosales said Japan has recently emerged as a major buyer of finished cigars, while sales to the U.K., Spain and France have slowed.
The slowdown in European sales has been attributed to oversupply in the Netherlands and weaker sales because of high European tobacco tariffs.
Altadis, the European-based cigar giant, formed after the merger of Spain's Tabacalera SA and France's Seita, last year purchased a 50 percent stake in Habanos SA.
Global merchants who specialize in the sale of Cuban cigars expect favorable changes from the Altadis-Habanos SA partnership, primarily in the area of agriculture, quality control and marketing.
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