Cigars & Cuba: 50 Years of History, pg. 2

Alejandro Robaina, center, is the godfather of Cuban cigars. His son, Carlos, left, and grandson, Hiroshi, right, continue to work the farm in San Luis where Robainas have grown cigar tobacco for many decades.

Posted: March 26, 2009

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Without the U.S. market, Cuba realized that it had to focus its cigar-selling efforts in Europe, mostly Spain, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and Great Britain. The Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries later became important markets as well, although mostly for machine-made and cheap handmade cigars. According to Stubbs's book, cigar exports were about 79 million in 1958 and dropped to about 55 million in 1970 before increasing to about 120 million by 1976.

"We had lost the U.S. market at that time," says Solana. "We started developing other markets that included the countries from the former socialist bloc. The socialist countries were not a major market but, without doubt, they were seen as a new opportunity to increase our sales. We sold around 10 million cigars to this market each year. Cubatabaco also opened two representative offices abroad: one in Holland and another in Spain. The main purpose of these offices was to promote Cuban cigars throughout the world."

Cigar exports stayed at about the 120 million level until the end of the 1970s, when an attack of blue mold decimated the entire 1979-80 crop, and Cubatabaco reduced exports to compensate for the shortfall in tobacco. A wet harvest in 1981-82 only added to the woes of the country, although the blue mold was controlled with antifungal chemicals. "The blue mold [in the '79-80 crop] wiped it all out," says Solana. "The loss in money was immense—several millions of dollars. Factories were unable to produce cigars due to the lack of tobacco. We lost the money that was used to buy chemicals against the blue mold. The economy suffered greatly."

With less tobacco and consequently lower cigar production, Cuban exports dropped to about 50 million cigars by the mid-1980s. The worried government decided in 1984 that a young and highly respected economist, Francisco Padron, would take over as head of Cubatabaco. He was given a free hand to do what he wanted. "In 10 years, I put exports at about 110 million cigars," says Padron, who is now retired and writing books in Havana. The outspoken pragmatist lasted a decade with Cubatabaco, which was renamed Habanos S.A. in 1994. He drastically changed the way Cuban cigars were distributed and marketed in the world as well as introducing foreign investment in the cigar industry for the first time since the revolution.

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