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CIGAR IMPORTS CONTINUE STEADY

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Los Angeles, June 19 – Although the general sentiment is that the cigar business – like many other sectors of the U.S. economy – has slowed somewhat, import figures show that the premium cigar side remains fairly steady.

For the month of April, the Cigar Association of America reported that imports of premium cigars totaled 23.86 million, about one percent ahead of April 2007. That’s remarkable considering that the 2007 figures included some little cigars in the count, so the 2008 performance was good.

For the year to date (four months), premium cigars imports totaled 75.6 million units, just about 10 percent behind 2007 for the same time period, again not bad considering that previous reporting included some higher-priced little cigars.

Other highlights of April activity included:

The leading exporter of cigars into the U.S. continues to be the Dominican Republic. In April, 10.39 million premium cigars were exported to the U.S., easily the most of any country. For the four months reported to date, the Dominican leads again with 33.22 million premium cigars or 44.0 percent of the total.

Honduras was a solid second in April with 7.89 million premium cigars exported to the U.S., well ahead of last year’s pace. In fact, exports for Honduras to the U.S. are up in total for January-April at 21.55 million, 13 percent ahead of last year’s total of 19.08 million.

Nicaragua was third for April, still ahead of last year’s totals at 5.52 million compared to 5.46 million in 2007. For the four months reported thus far, some 20.13 million Nicaraguan cigars have been shipped to the U.S., 10.9 percent more than in 2007 at the same point (18.15 million).

Mexico was the only other country reported to export cigars to the U.S. in April, at 54,000, with 374 ,000 for the year through four months, slightly ahead of 2007.

Noting that premium cigar import figures for 2008 are counted differently than for 2007, it’s worthwhile to examine overall import figures for all types of cigars: premium, machine-made and little cigars. Through the first four months of 2008, total cigar imports are up a little: 394.42 million for 2008, a little more than 2.7 percent ahead of 2007.

A closer look at the overall cigar import totals shows the strength of the “large” cigar category – premium and machine-made – as little cigar imports have decreased by 10.4 percent from 140.46 million in 2007 to 125.84 million this year. But large-cigar imports have zoomed, from 243.4 million in 2007 to 268.6 million, more than 10 percent ahead for the first four months of 2008.

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