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Page 1 of 2  Plus: Miami Herald goes undercover in Cuba
Los Angeles, September 22 – The economy isn’t the best, but cigar import figures show that there is still strong demand for premium cigars in the U.S.
The newest statistics, compiled by the Cigar Association of America from U.S. Customs Service data, showed that 26.76 million premium cigars were imported into the U.S. in July of 2008, down about 13 percent from 2007. However, the 2007 figures also includes an unknown number of little cigars, so the two years are not directly comparable.
Even so, for the first seven months of the year, U.S. premium cigar imports totaled 142.98 million, down a little over 16 percent from 2008. In comparing the pace of imports, after seven months in 2007, some 51.2 percent of all imports for the year had been counted. By that measure, premium cigar imports for 2008 can be projected at 279.36 million, which would be the lowest figure since way back in . . . 2003 and would be the sixth-highest import total on record.
The breakdown of the import report shows:
The Dominican Republic continues as the dominant force on the American market. For July, 12.34 million premium cigars were imported, down 22 percent from July of 2007, but still a third more cigars than exported by second-place Honduras. For the first seven months of 2008, the Dominican has exported 58.36 million premium cigars to the U.S., a considerable drop from the 92.10 million last year and the principal difference in the overall import drop.
Honduran cigar exports continued strong and will likely rise for the fifth straight year. In July, some 8.27 million premium cigars came into the U.S., a 4.2 percent increase over July of 2007. For January-July 2008, the Honduran total is up by 13.3 percent to 45.85 million.
Nicaraguan cigar imports to the U.S. were down a little in July as against 2007, but the overall total is up for the year-to-date. Some 5.94 million premium cigars came into the U.S. in July, down 14 percent from 2007, but for the first seven months of 2008, Nicaraguan cigar imports into the U.S. were up by 1.6 percent at 37.47 million.
Small import totals were also recorded for Mexico and Philippines for July 2008. For the year, 627,000 Mexican cigars have been imported for fourth place overall with the Philippines fifth at 386,000.
While premium cigar imports are down a bit, overall U.S. cigar imports are zooming!
Machine-made cigars are up a reported 50.4 percent for 2008 to 450.08 million for the first seven months of the year compared to 2007. There is a question about 119 million cigars imported from Colombia; if these are subtracted as likely little cigars, machine-made large cigars are still up by 10.7 percent so far in 2008.
Little cigars are also up for the year at 227.75 million, not including the Colombian imports, ahead of 2007 for the same time period by 14.6 percent. If the Columbian cigars are added in, little cigar totals are up by 74.4% for the year to date.
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