Record cigar sales in Cuba in 2024

After a lull caused by the health crisis, the Cuban cigar is growing worldwide again. In 2024, exports of Cuban cigars reached their highest level, setting a new record. A closer look.

Cuban cigar exports up 16% in 2024

The figure was made public at the 25th international festival, which opened on 24 February in Havana. Sales of Cuban cigars abroad rose sharply last year, by 16%. That amounts to no less than 827 million dollars in turnover, according to Habanos S.A.

Tourism plays a major role, but the island depends above all on its cigars. The health crisis damaged the economic situation of Cuba, which is still struggling with a deep crisis marked by shortages, difficult access to foreign currency and regular power cuts. The country is nevertheless recovering slowly. The 16% rise in sales in 2024 compared with 2023 is evidence of this. It is a new record, and the management of Habanos S.A. has welcomed the figures.

The result is all the more notable in that the luxury industry recorded stable sales over the same year. Cigar exports are therefore doing well in an economic context that remains difficult. The rise has been under way since 2021, but the company’s executives are aware that the trend could reverse at any time.

When Asia does well, everything does well

For the moment, Habanos S.A. has good reason to be satisfied. The Asian market, and the Chinese market in particular, is buoyant. No less than 24% of sales go to Asia-Pacific each year. China is the largest market in the world for Cuban cigars, just ahead of a group of four European countries: Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Germany. Cuban cigars also remain subject to the American embargo imposed in 1962 and can therefore not be exported to the United States.