Cuban cigarillo factory overwhelmed by burning demand overseas

The ICT factory's 64 cigarillo-making machines tin rotation retired 800,000 per day. Photo: ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP
Source: AFP

Cuba's sole shaper of cigarillos cannot support up with exploding request overseas for the smaller, cheaper, machine-rolled mentation of the land nation's overmuch much celebrated hand-crafted cigars.

Working astatine afloat capacity, the Internacional Cubana de Tabacos S.A. (ICT) mill produces 800,000 cigarillos a day. It is not enough.

Exports person accrued tenfold successful 2 decades -- and that's contempt stricter smoking laws worldwide, and not being capable to merchantability into the US marketplace owed to its decades-long embargo.

"Today we person a problem, which is simply a bully problem. Our warehouses, our inventories of finished products, are astatine zero. Everything we produce, we sell," ICT president Ricardo Soler told AFP astatine the mill successful Havana.

"Our accumulation capableness has not been capable to conscionable demand" chiefly successful Europe, but progressively besides Asia, helium said.

ICT is simply a semi state-owned institution partnered with Spain's Tabacalera.

Its income grew from 25.4 cardinal cigarillos successful 2001 to 200 cardinal past twelvemonth erstwhile the institution reported a turnover of $38 million.

Unlike Cuba's celebrated hand-rolled "Habanos," cigarillos are aimed astatine a marketplace with "lower purchasing power," said Soler.

Growth successful Cuban cigar income has besides remained strong, reaching $827 cardinal past twelvemonth -- a 16-percent summation from 2023 driven by Asian request for luxury products.

Cigars are 1 of Cuba's main export products.

"The Habano is the king, we are the princes," said Soler.

ICT's income grew from 25.4 cardinal cigarillos successful 2001 to 200 cardinal past year. Photo: ADALBERTO ROQUE / AFP
Source: AFP

The ICT factory, opened successful 2001, employs immoderate 400 workers, producing cigarillos with 64 machines, 7 days a week.

"I emotion my machine," said 24-year-old idiosyncratic Risel Barbara Fuente, who earns 11,200 pesos (some 93 dollars) per period -- treble the mean wage successful economical crisis-riddled Cuba.

Like the others, she besides receives a heavy subsidized monthly handbasket of nutrient and hygiene products worthy 3 times her salary.

"Strong investments" are planned for 2025 to summation accumulation capacity, said Soler.

PAY ATTENTION: Сheck retired quality that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” artifact connected the location leafage and enjoy!

Source: AFP