http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/economy/62670-150228-move-over-cuba-syrian-cigars-are-on-their-way
Estimated 10,000 cigars to be produced; will face heavy competition from well-known cigar producing countries
Cuban cigars may soon have a new rival, Syria, reported al-Arabiya Friday.
Nader Abdullah, director general of the company, told the Syrian official news agencySANA that 10,000 cigars will be produced and would help create 1,000 jobs in the country devastated by four years of civil war.
The Syrian General Organization of Tobacco is set to start producing high-end cigars by March following a series of successful test runs, but it remains to be seen if the company will be able to export the cigars abroad without turning to the black market.
The General Organization of Tobacco was hit by an asset freeze in 2012 by the European Union after it was accused of providing financial support to the Assad regime.
Joey Whittaker, senior sales manager at the Coroner Cigar Company in Orlando said that Syria would have tough competition against well-known cigar producing countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominican, and Honduras, which have "proven track records spanning centuries."
Cuba has 70 percent market share for global cigar sales outside the United States, which accounts for two-thirds of world sales.
Jorge Luis Fernandez Maique, commercial vice president at Habanos S.A., a joint venture between the Cuban government and Britain's Imperial Tobacco, said that the United States has a "highly competitive and very complicated market."
Whittaker added that "people do like new things especially in this industry. People like new tastes and if this is a tobacco grown in Syria, then it is likely it is going to taste drastically different to anything you can already purchase and people will want to experience that.”
Estimated 10,000 cigars to be produced; will face heavy competition from well-known cigar producing countries
Cuban cigars may soon have a new rival, Syria, reported al-Arabiya Friday.
Nader Abdullah, director general of the company, told the Syrian official news agencySANA that 10,000 cigars will be produced and would help create 1,000 jobs in the country devastated by four years of civil war.
The Syrian General Organization of Tobacco is set to start producing high-end cigars by March following a series of successful test runs, but it remains to be seen if the company will be able to export the cigars abroad without turning to the black market.
The General Organization of Tobacco was hit by an asset freeze in 2012 by the European Union after it was accused of providing financial support to the Assad regime.
Joey Whittaker, senior sales manager at the Coroner Cigar Company in Orlando said that Syria would have tough competition against well-known cigar producing countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, Dominican, and Honduras, which have "proven track records spanning centuries."
Cuba has 70 percent market share for global cigar sales outside the United States, which accounts for two-thirds of world sales.
Jorge Luis Fernandez Maique, commercial vice president at Habanos S.A., a joint venture between the Cuban government and Britain's Imperial Tobacco, said that the United States has a "highly competitive and very complicated market."
Whittaker added that "people do like new things especially in this industry. People like new tastes and if this is a tobacco grown in Syria, then it is likely it is going to taste drastically different to anything you can already purchase and people will want to experience that.”
