AP looks at the cigar industry in Cuba as trade festival opens in Havana скачать в хорошем качестве

AP looks at the cigar industry in Cuba as trade festival opens in Havana

(23 Feb 2009) Havana - 23 February 2009 1. Foreign Trade Minister of Cuba, Raul de la Nuez, cutting ribbon of commercial cigar fair 2. Pull out from close-up of Habanos sign to trade stand at the fair 3. De la Nuez looking at cigars with Habanos representatives 4. Various of cigars displayed at event 5. Pan across people at trade fair FILE: Pinar del Rio province - Recent 6. Wide of tobacco field in Pinar del Rio province 7. Tobacco leaves 8. Various of woman working inside tobacco drying house 9. Tilt up from hands making cigar to face of woman smoking while working 10. Woman smoking cigar while rolling one 11. Various of men working with "Montecristo" boxes FILE: Exact location unknown - 1970s 12. Tilt up STILL picture of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro holding a cigar in his hand FILE: Exact location unknown - Recent 13. Various of woman smoking cigar and dancing during an Afro-Cuban ritual STORYLINE: Cuba, long considered the paradise of tobacco and home to some of the most premium leaves in the world, opened its doors to the XI Habano Festival on Monday. Over a thousand guests from more than 60 countries are expected to participate in the five-day event which ends on February 27. The Festival's programme includes a commercial fair, visits to cigar factories, cigar tastings, and trips to Cuba's most famous plantations in the eastern province of Pinar del Rio where the world's best leaves are grown. The festival attracts many of the world's rich and famous for the final night when one-of-a-kind humidors are auctioned for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the past, the humidors were personally autographed by then-President Fidel Castro. Proceeds from the auction benefit Havana's Cancer Hospital. The objective of the festival, according to organisers, is to create an event where people who enjoy smoking cigars and those who are involved in its production can get together to exchange ideas. Cuba's cigar industry survived a trio of hurricanes but saw sales slip three percent to 390 (m) million US dollars last year as the world economic crisis reduced demand for luxury goods, the island's tobacco monopoly said on Monday. The first two storms destroyed dozens of curing barns and production facilities when they roared through Cuba's western Pinar de Rio province - where the mix of sun, slightly sandy soil and humidity grows the island's finest tobacco - but they hit while the crop was out of season, said Habanos SA vice president Manuel Garcia. Habanos SA said an 11 percent drop in international travellers slowed cigar sales at duty free shops, which account for a quarter of its business, while stricter smoking laws in Germany, France, the UK and United Arab Emirates also decreased demand. Some 25 percent of the 400 (m) million cigars sold worldwide last year were Cuban, with Spain, France, Germany and then Cuba itself buying the most, said a vice president for development at Habanos. Excluding the US, which consumes about 250 (m) million cigars a year, Cubans hold 70 percent of the global cigar market, he added. US President Barack Obama's election has sparked talk of the US easing its 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, potentially opening the world's biggest market to Habanos. Habanos was founded in 1994 as a joint venture between Cuba's communist government and Madrid-based Altadis SA, part of a Cuban push to draw private, foreign investment after the collapse of the Soviet Union cost the island (b) billions of dollars in annual subsidies and trade. Altadis was acquired by Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group PLC last year for 16 (b) billion US dollars. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...