In the first quarter of 2026, the United States imported 90.9 million premium cigars, a decrease of 3% compared to last year.

The figures for the first quarter of 2026 published by the Cigar Association of America (CAA) are historic. Not because of the slight 3% decrease in volume they reveal, but because with 17.2 million premium cigars exported to the United States between January and March, Honduras surpassed the Dominican Republic for the first time, relegating it to third place with 15.6 million units.

Nicaragua remains out of reach with 56.8 million units exported, representing 62.5% of the US market, the world’s largest for handmade cigars.

While Honduran growth is real and sustainable—the country already showed an 11% increase in exports to the United States in 2025—according to experts consulted by L’Amateur, the Dominican Republic’s decline is largely explained by the difficulties faced by the Dominican factory Tabacalera de Garcia (TG), the world’s largest cigar manufacturer.

During the last quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, TG’s exports to the United States were halted due to sanctions imposed by the US administration as part of the investigation into Chinese billionaire Chen Zhi. At full capacity, TG claimed an annual production of 40 million units, 24 million of which were destined for the US market – an average of 6 million units exported to the United States each quarter.

Following these sanctions, which prohibited Tabacalera USA from importing cigars manufactured by TG, the factory was operating at only 40-45% of its capacity, according to our findings. This negatively impacted Dominican export figures, which fell by 8% compared to the 17 million cigars exported in the first quarter of last year.

This situation ended in early May when Tabacalera SLU obtained provisional licenses allowing Tabacalera USA to resume imports from TG. The usual hierarchy could therefore be restored as early as the second quarter.

The United States imported 429.8 million cigars in 2025, the fifth consecutive year above 400 million.

Since the embargo imposed in 1962, Cuban cigars have been illegal to import into the United States.