Question For The Habanos Smokers

Joined Jan 2005
1K Posts | 0+
Chicago
Castle, I am especially interested in hearing your thoughts on this. I read a great article in the most recent issue of smoke which was an interview with Don Alejandro Robaina. In there they quatoed a statistic that only 10% of leaf grown in cuba is used for habanos and the rest goes to cigarettes.

I found this statistic to be startling. This means that there is a lot of bad leaf grown in Cuba. I know they are maximizing production currently with increasing demand.

Wouldnt Cuba opening and the fall of comunism have its downside for the guys that love the cubans and have access to them now? With such a huge surge in demand you would think the temptation of more $$$ would drive people to start using some the rejected 90% of the crop. Not to mention the prices. For the guys that smoke cubans now, I think they are in pretty good shape. If Cuba traded freely with the US I think it woudl be a bigger problem for the guys that love them now.

What are your thoughts?
 
I would hope the opposite, that some tobacco people could come back in there and see to it that the construction and quality would improove, as well as consistency....

Hopefully the 10% would drastically increase....A little idealistic? I don;t know, but it helps to be optimistic
 
WOW, only 10%!?

It would be interesting to see the kind of product that the big names in the industry would produce back on Cuban soil. I'd hope that the consistency would warrant any price increase as well.

Just imagine...meeting down in Havana for a cigar.com herf...now that would be something! 8)
 
Wow a Havana Herf would be amazing.

If only 10% is kept for Habanos, the amount reserved for the limitada line must be a very shocking statistic.
 
Remember that Cuba is not as poor of a tobacco country as many others. I suspect that if Cuban trade was ever okayed, manufacturers elsewhere would not just up and move to Cuba as they would most likely pay higher wages. Castro isn't as big of a monster as many beleive him to be and he does take care of his people reasonably well. Another reason manufacturers would most likely not consolidate to Cuba is that relations between the US and Cuba will still be strained for some time after the embargo is lifted--its just political history.


Anyway, the whole feud is based on lies, deceipt, and misguided reactions. The Soviets got Castro to believe we were an imminent danger (and quite honestly we were). So if the whole thing has its roots as deep as it does that after 40 some years its still an issue, what makes anybody think that a trade agreement would be reached even in some of our lifetimes.
 
I didn't mean to take shots or anything its just that I'm such a pessimistic realist guy by nature that sometimes I say things that although true, are upsetting nonetheless.

I've only had one cuban and it was enough to make it a dream of mine as well.
 
ive had two, and ive got a third in the humi...
got to the stash box thread to learn more and help me out!
 
Well, the way I remember the "feud" is a butt load of Russian missiles 60 seconds away which made most of us unhappy. The shine is off the "Worker's Paradise" for sure in 2005 (some Russians say that Cuba bankrupted them) and day to day electric power is iffy. If, when that old commie is gone and the people refuse Castro II I'll bet the real Cubans will take their country back, and it will blossom.
 
I don't doubt that it will become a very prosperous country, just not until our own government changes. Yes it was the Cuban Missile Crisis that sparked things, what I meant was that Castro allowed the Russians to set up camp there because they had convinced him that we were a threat to the communist nations and not afraid to do whatever it takes to spread democracy.

Day to day electricity is if I'm correct only iffy in the rural areas and that is because of the gargantuan efforts that Castro is putting into jamming our "Democracy TV program."

That is itself an interesting little program in which the US is broadcasting a TV signal talking about the deficiencies in the Cuban government. Previously they used a ballon mounted device but have recently switched to a wartime propaganda plane with a transmitter inside. However none of our efforts have been fruitful as Castro has jammed our signal. Now Bush wants to spend millions on a new plane with a more powerful transmitter at a time when the country is already deeply in debt and at war elsewhere.
 
Great Question!
I've heard many people say many things on what "Might" happen.

As far as %10 used for cigars - I have never heard that - & find it hard to believe, but will ask someone that will know and get back to you.

As for after Castro is gone and relations open back up.
The one thing I have heard often is that any family that has had their land/name seized will most likely start Law suits and ask to be repaid for the use of their name.
Is this true - not sure?
I knwo Altidas has been playing on both sides of the fence and
will no doubt be the central player in most of this.
I do think demand will sky rocket as will prices for a short time.
Then it will level off to the real cigar smokers wnating habanos.
Will prices ever be the same - I doubt it!
Quality will aslo no doubt suffer at first,
I think there will not be enough tobacco at first and so price will rise and then it will find a place where it works.

As for Castro being good to his people - Very far from the truth!
I have friends with family there and life is not easy!
Stand on line for not enough of anything we all have to much of.
Things like soap, tooth paste, band aids & on & on.
I am surprised there has not been a internal war the people against the government yet? It still may happen!

I'm going back to read others comments again and comment on comments!
 
cigarsmoka said:
I would hope the opposite, that some tobacco people could come back in there and see to it that the construction and quality would improove, as well as consistency....

I highly doubt anyone that left will go back!
but that is my opnion - I would bet it won't happen right away.
Time has a way of changing things - :?:

I said above that I think some familys will file law suits -
it could become evry messy and psibly stop some cigars companys from selling anything for a few years.
It maybe thios alone that creats the biggest changes!

Remember I am sharing my own veiws/thoughts
I know nothing for sure!
 
I do wonder what bringing modern equipment to do some of
what ever can be done by modern machinery will do to the cigars
world of cuba???
 
Macallan said:
Castle, I am especially interested in hearing your thoughts on this. I read a great article in the most recent issue of smoke which was an interview with Don Alejandro Robaina. In there they quatoed a statistic that only 10% of leaf grown in cuba is used for habanos and the rest goes to cigarettes.

Ok here is an answer from somone I trust very much!

I do not wish to use his name - please trust he is one of the
most knowledable people in the cigar world!

His reply:
Hello Loren,

If you count ALL the tobacco harvested in Cuba. This might be true. If you only count the tobacco produced in the Vuelta Abajo region, which I understand accounts for less than 10% of the total tobacco grown in the Island, of course this is not.

Have a very nice day.
 
I'm sure I know whose mouth that came from, and trust me folks, the man that CC spoke to is THE CUBAN HORSE. If it comes out of his mouth, it's true.
 
Thanks for the reply CC. As they say you can create a statistic for anything. Your thoughts on the matter are interesting and you are right about altadis probably being a very major player in any transition. I wonder though since they own the cuban cigar trade and own JR tobacco if it will be concieved as a monopoly.

I guess as they say no one knows how these things turn out. My biggest concern is simply for the oprest people of Cuba and the preservation of the most coveted growing region in the world.
 
You're right, Castro is not "good" to his people. What I meant to say is that Castro has the best interests of his people at heart (however screwed up they may be--which kind of reminds me of good ole Dubya). Things don't work out in the end for the people but the dictator gets their jollies.

The lack of things that we take for granted however is something that we may be partly responsible for. I don't mean we're depriving them of things on purpose but rather that with our constant patrolling of their borders, maybe their importers can't cost effectively supply them. Just a thought...

If you'd like a point of view from somebody there then, I suggest the documentary The Fog of War with interviews with Robert Macnamara.
 
For any American President to be compared to the "Poster child" of Communist failure is your American right INQM, but, pretty hard to take. We all know that the Russians broke themselves trying to make Cuba the showplace of modern communism and it has drilled a hole straight down for 40 years. I saw an international news story that highlighted Cubans in the capital city who lived in 10 story apartment buildings with no electricity and you said" "There may be some rural areas with shortages, and that any shortage may be our fault. This tread has to do with the return or not of top cigar producers to Cuba when this old commie is dead and his failed ideals are long gone. My bet is that they are capitalists and will only return to a free Cuba.
 
Kaz,

I like the stand you take!
I hear so much sadness coming out of Cuba it is really hard to understand.
I think what gets confusing at times is how many different angles it gets spun from.
Castro - (1 of the 10 RICHEST people in the world) lets his people live under such hard ship it is difficult to imagine.
The whole time saying it is because of America!
It is a Sad, but Beautiful country.
People with such strength & beauty that in some ways it will be very sad when it is modernized.
Not sure how many of you have been to the islands and lived with the people????


Here is a famous Cuban Joke:
2 girls meet and one asks the other"
"so what happened with your boy friend?"
the other replies"
"I broke up with him - he told me he was a Bell Hop,
but I found out he was a Doctor!"

Funny but this is very true in Cuba!