Sawt Falasteen - Cuban cigarillo factory overwhelmed by burning demand overseas

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

Exports have increased tenfold in two decades -- and that's despite stricter smoking laws worldwide, and not being able to sell into the US market due to its decades-long embargo.

"Today we have a problem, which is a good problem. Our warehouses, our inventories of finished products, are at zero. Everything we produce, we sell," ICT president Ricardo Soler told AFP at the factory in Havana.

"Our production capacity has not been able to meet demand" mainly in Europe, but increasingly also Asia, he said.

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

Its sales grew from 25.4 million cigarillos in 2001 to 200 million last year when the company reported a turnover of $38 million.

Unlike Cuba's famous hand-rolled "Habanos," cigarillos are aimed at a market with "lower purchasing power," said Soler.

Growth in Cuban cigar sales has also remained strong, reaching $827 million last year -- a 16-percent increase from 2023 driven by Asian demand for luxury products.

Cigars are one of Cuba's main export products.

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

The ICT factory, opened in 2001, employs some 400 workers, producing cigarillos with 64 machines, seven days a week.

"I love my machine," said 24-year-old worker Risel Barbara Fuente, who earns 11,200 pesos (some 93 dollars) per month -- double the average salary in economic crisis-riddled Cuba.

Like the others, she also receives a heavily subsidized monthly basket of food and hygiene products worth three times her salary.

"Strong investments" are planned for 2025 to increase production capacity, said Soler.

T.Ibrahim--SF-PST