At Intertabac, New World manufacturers and importers are no longer taking quite such pleasure in Cuba’s troubles.

The tongue-in-cheek “thank you, Cuba!” heard from many industry professionals after Covid has given way to deeper concern over the troubles facing Cuban cigars and the continued absence — or under-representation — of Habanos in cigar shops around the world.

The Germans who host the world’s largest tobacco trade show every year have a word of their own for the malicious pleasure of taking satisfaction in someone else’s misfortune: Schadenfreude. And that feeling was widespread in recent years among New World cigar manufacturers and importers.

Today, however, Schadenfreude is no longer the order of the day.

“We need the Cubans!” was the blunt message repeated to us by many Nicaraguan, Dominican and Honduran cigar manufacturers and importers we met at Intertabac, which ended on Thursday, September 17, in Dortmund, north-west Germany.

“It’s never a good thing when the leader of a market — which Cuban cigars are in Europe — weakens or runs into trouble,” Christian Eiroa told us in the early hours of the show. “I’m thinking in particular of cigar shops. The lack of Cuban cigars means they lose foot traffic… and that also affects sales of our cigars. Many aficionados go into a cigar shop to buy Cuban cigars and may leave with a non-Cuban. It doesn’t work the other way around.”

“A lost generation”

This concern echoes that expressed for some time now by retailers, who fear not only a decline in revenue from Cuban cigars — although so far it has held up, with price increases offsetting the scarcity of products — but also the lasting disappearance of what remains the main gateway product into the handmade cigar category.

A representative of one of Europe’s largest Habanos distributors also warned us several months ago of the emergence of a “lost generation” for Cuban cigars. The shortage and vertiginous price increases for certain vitolas are effectively keeping newcomers away: they are increasingly less “exposed to Cuban cigars” in cigar shops — or are encountering them at prohibitive prices — and consequently less likely to incorporate them into their smoking habits.

Although Habanos S.A. and its German distributor Fifth Avenue have not had a stand at the show since 2024, the situation on the island and within the Cuban group were once again on everyone’s lips this year. Since the previous edition of the show, the ownership crisis has been added to the worsening energy and social situation on the island.

“Of course, the shortage of Cuban cigars and the price increases of recent years create opportunities for us,” acknowledged a manufacturer based in Nicaragua. “But in the long term, it’s good for nobody. Cuba remains the benchmark.” “Cuba is the origin. That’s where it all began,” added the head of handmade cigars at a major group.

While receiving an award on the sidelines of the show, in front of an audience of handmade cigar industry professionals, VCF president Fred Vandermarliere said: “Many of the people in this room have Cuban roots. We all know how difficult the current situation [in Cuba] is. Even if it may represent an opportunity for non-Cuban cigars, I sincerely hope that the Cuban people will stand firm and recover, and that we will be able to offer them the future they deserve, thanks in particular to their cigars and their terroir.” His remarks were met with sustained applause.

Laurent Mimouni, special correspondent in Dortmund, Germany