Cigar Imports For 2022 Hit 464 Million
The numbers for 2022 are (finally) in, and they are even better than 2021. According to a report issued this afternoon by the Cigar Association of America, the United States imported 464.5 million premium cigars in 2022, a 2.3 percent increase over 2021. The gain is a small, but noteworthy, as many believed it would be hard to top 2021, one of the biggest years for cigar sales in memory.
Among the top producers, the gains were strongest for Nicaragua, which had a 4.1 percent increase to 250.8 million cigars. The Dominican Republic, the second-largest producer of cigars, had a 1.4 percent gain, shipping 128.9 million cigars to the United States. No. 3 producer Honduras was the sole country with a decrease, slipping 1.3 percent, to 83 million cigars. Those three producers account for nearly the entire production of imported, handmade cigars smoked in the United States. (Cuban cigars cannot be legally imported into the U.S., so there are no official numbers accounting for Cuban cigars in this country.)
This marks the third consecutive year of growth in cigar imports, and the second year in a row that imports exceeded 400 million units. The cigar market has been quite robust since 2020, which saw a 7.9 percent increase in exports despite disruptions in the production chain. The year 2021 was even better, with a 25.2 percent increase in exports, to 456 million.
As good as the numbers are, the year 2023 isn’t expected to be one where the growth continues. “I would say that the cigar market has plateaued,” says Rocky Patel, one of the major producers of handmade cigars. “There hasn’t been a big dip, there hasn’t been a big rise, it’s just been steady.”
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