10/20/2012
“The” Tobacco
Luxury, money, power, pure; these are the type of words that come to mind when one thinks of a cigar, another familiar word is usually Cuba. Cuban cigars contain the finest tobacco in the world and the numbers show for the communist economy as it generated four hundred million dollars last year for Cuba alone according to Money News. The United States which is the largest Cigar market in the world does not even sell Cuban cigars due to a fifty year-long trade embargo with the trifling sized neighbor which is the United States. So then where is Cuba exporting this product to generate such large numbers? Western Europe is responsible for the business, Imperial Tobacco Group located in Britain to be more specific, which is the largest cigar distributor to European nations. With a relationship like this one, the benefits are on each side of the transaction. The Imperial Tobacco group employs over 37,000 people and operates forty-seven manufacturing sites across the globe (Imperial Tobacco Group). That is a large amount of Europeans being employed by a growing industry. With the company mainly based in the United Kingdom, Western Europe is the biggest consumer of Cuban Tobacco right now (Money News). Imperial Tobacco remains at the top for cigar sales across Western Europe. Where would this power house company be without the fine Cuban tobacco? The company would definitely not be worth as much as they are now. The profit for Imperial would not be as high and the amount of employment would certainly not be where it is at. The people of Western Europe can get their tobacco from anywhere, including the United States for a cheaper price. The countries of Western Europe want to continue their business with Cuba. “The European nations want to improve their goals on supporting a transition to a market economy as well as improve the standards of living for the Cuban people through economic engagement” (Lopez-Levy