See Also:

• Monday, February 6, 2012
  Room 101 Takes Aim with OSOK
• Tuesday, January 31, 2012
  Eddie Ortega, President of EOBrands, Resigns
• Tuesday, January 31, 2012
  Indianapolis Council Passes Smoking Ban, Mayor Vows Veto
• Monday, January 30, 2012
  New Padrón— 60 Ring No. 4
• Thursday, January 26, 2012
  José Seijas Leaves Altadis
• More from News & Features

Cigar Shipments Exceed 300 Million

David Savona
Posted: February 7, 2008

Shipments of premium, handmade cigars into the United States surpassed 300 million units through November 2007. Imports were up 6.9 percent over the same period in 2006, to 304 million cigars.

This marks the third year running that cigar imports have exceeded 300 million units, a number that was thought unreachable in the early days of the 1990s cigar boom.

Strong gains from Nicaragua, the third-largest exporter of cigars to the United States, and more modest growth from the Dominican Republic, the largest exporter, were responsible for the gains. The Dominican Republic shipped 161 million cigars in the first 11 months of the year, up 2.8 percent, followed by Honduras, up 3.9 percent, to 75.5 million. Nicaraguan shipments were 62 million cigars, up 22.1 percent.

December is a key month in the cigar business, so that data, once calculated, will be key to see how good a year 2007 truly was.

From the current issue of Cigar Insider.