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CIGAR IMPORTS SECOND-HIGHEST EVER?

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CIGAR IMPORTS SECOND-HIGHEST EVER? Plus: The Churchill behind the new Winston Churchill brand

Los Angeles, January 4 – Imports of all kinds of cigars continued to flow into the United States into the fourth quarter of 2007 at a pace that may be the second-best on record.

The report on imports through October of 2007 provided by the Cigar Association of America showed that year-over-year, imports increased by 9.52 percent to 33.2 million premium cigars.

For the year, imports reached 268.9 million handmade cigars through the first 10 months of the 2007. That’s an increase of 7.71 percent for the year and if the pattern holds through the December report, the total for the year will reach 335.0 million, the second-highest total on record. That would be more than the 334.6 million in 1998, the final year of the Cigar Boom and a total that many cigar industry executives thought it would be many more years before such a figure was even approached. The all-time record of 417.8 million from 1997 is not in danger, of course. But the increase is being shared across the board:

The leader in all of this, of course, is the Dominican Republic. The world’s largest producer of cigars is on a roll, exporting 145 million cigars to the U.S. so far this year, almost 4 percent ahead of 2007. That’s 53.9 percent of the overall total imported so far.

Honduran imports have moved slightly ahead for the year, 65.5 million in 2007 against 63.6 million for the first ten months of last year.

Imports from Nicaragua have been running at record levels all year. After ten months, some 55.3 million cigars have been imported into the U.S., 25.4 percent more than last year’s total of 44.1 million through October.

Even the small exporters are ahead of 2007: 1.17 million cigars have been imported from the Bahamas, up 61 percent over last year; 1.22 million cigars have come in from Mexico, up 23.2 percent and 651,000 from the Philippines, up 58 percent from the ten-month figures from 2007.

These impressive figures will also show 2007 as the fourth consecutive year when premium imports exceeded 300 million, a figure achieved only twice before.

Of course, premium cigars are only one part of the much larger cigar trade. And U.S. cigar imports of all kinds have gone wild in 2007. In addition to the 268.9 million handmade cigars imported, 468.6 million machine-made cigars have come into the U.S. for a total “large-cigar” count of 737.5 million through ten months. That’s up an astonishing 34.4 percent.

Then there are little cigars. After ten months, little cigar imports are 277.8 million, ahead by 60.4 percent over 2007! A little more than 38 percent of these come from India, with another 20.6 percent from Brazil.

Put all the figures together and the total number of cigars imported through October of 2007 is 1.015 billion cigars. That’s a lot of cigars and a stunning 23.3 percent ahead of the comparable figures for 2006. Quite a testament to the U.S. cigar market, easily the world’s largest.

American cigar companies also export cigars, although large-cigar exports (hand and machine-made) are down again for 2007. Through ten months, the year-total decrease is 13.1 percent to 103.3 million cigars, almost all machine-made.

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Did you know?

“Alfred Dunhill opened his first shop in 1893, his first tobacco shop in London in 1907 and the New York store in 1923.