U.S. Premium Cigar Imports Rise Again

Los Angeles, November 23 – Just when you think the Cigar Renaissance will slow down, it keeps chugging along.

Figures for U.S. imports of premium cigars for the nine months ending September 30 were released by the Cigar Association of America showed that imports kept pace with the hot 2004 totals and then did just a bit more.

After three quarters of the year, the 2005 totals are up a little over 9% compared to 2004, when 282.1 million premium cigars were imported. At that pace, imports for 2005 will surpass the magical 300 million figure and end at 309.7 million. If so, it will be only the third time ever that imports have surpassed that level and the first time since the final year of the Cigar Boom in 1998.

For the month of September, imports rose by just a tad, at 25.8 million, 1.34% ahead of last year’s total of 25.4 million.

Once again, Dominican-made cigars dominated all others, with 13.7 million imports (53.0%), well ahead of Honduras with 6.9 million (26.7%) and Nicaragua, at 5.0 million (19.5%). “Smarty Marty” Pulvers of San Francisco’s Sherlock’s Haven will no doubt note that this total, however, is down to only 99.2% from 100% last month and the remaining imports came from . . . three countries!

The final 0.8% came from Mexico (97,000 cigars), the Philippines (60,000) and from Jamaica (6,000).

Prices remained steady, with the average value at the time of import of Dominican cigars averaging 93 cents a stick so far this year, up less than 1% over last year. Prices of Honduran and Nicaraguan-made cigars have actually dropped by about 1% in 2005.

Many manufacturers are warning of prices increases ahead, however. As consumption continues apace, the big stocks of tobacco left over from the late 1990s are disappearing. Prices may be set to rise in 2006, but for now, it’s a great time to be making, buying and smoking cigars.

So, despite all of the city and state smoking bans and constant pressure from extremist anti-smoking groups, cigar smoking in the Land of the Free continues to be a popular pastime. The renewal of interest in quality cigars after the Boom’s bust seems solid.

Just one more thing to be thankful for in this holiday season.

Posted on Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005 at 5:42 am.