Cuban cigar producers acknowledge that a worldwide slump in demand for luxury goods has hurt exports of the island's word-famous stogies, but say they are hopeful about regaining some of the lost market this year.
"We are very optimistic and have a lot of work to do," Jaime Garcia, of the Cuban cigar company Habanos S.A. told reporters on Thursday.
While refusing to give more precise figures, Garcia said that Cuba's cigars continued to bring in US$240 million annually even though cigar exports were down about 8 percent or 9 percent last year.
Garcia spoke at a news conference on Cuba's Habanos Festival Feb. 24 to Feb. 28, an annual gathering of hundreds of cigar aficionados from around the world. The festival is hosted by Habanos S.A., a joint partnership between Cuba's government and the European firm Altadis that markets the island's cigars around the globe.
Cuban cigar sales dropped around Latin America last year as various countries struggled with regional economic problems, including the devaluation of their national currencies.
A drop in sales in Mexico, where many Americans travel to buy Cuban cigars to sneak back home,has been blamed on increased US customs controls after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Because of the four-decade-old US trade embargo against the communist-run island, Cuban products -- including its coveted cigars -- cannot be legally sold in the US.
Along with regional and global economic downturns, Cuba's cigar industry was also buffeted last year by a pair of hurricanes that leveled scores of curing houses in the western tobacco growing province of Pinar del Rio.
Habanos S.A. has said that in 2001 Cuba produced 153 million cigars for export that brought in more than US$200 million.
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