THE CUBA REVIEW 



2') 



THE CUBAN TOBACCO INDUSTRY 



WHIMS OF THE ENGLISH CIGAR IMPORTER TOBACCO MEN IN CUBA 



HAVE A NEW PROPOSITION 



THE ENGLISH CIGAR IMPORTER 



The British smoker is by far the most 

 critical and the most intelligent. The Brit- 

 ish importer is perhaps the only one that 

 orders from the Cuban manufacturers ac- 

 cording to the quality of the crop. If the 

 crop is a good one the importer in England 

 orders heavily and stocks up for a year or 

 two, and if the cigars produced are poor 

 in a certain year the exportation imme- 

 diately slumps accordingly. The American 

 importers and importers in other countries 

 do not stock up and do not look after their 

 trade like the English importer. The Eng- 

 lish importer is also encouraged in the 

 method of stocking up according to the 

 quality of the crops in Cuba by the climate 

 that prevails in his country. The climate 

 allows the importer to carry stocks of a cer- 

 tain kind of cigars for several years with- 

 out deteriorating. In Cuba and the United 

 States and most other countries cigars be- 

 come "spent" if stored for more than one 

 season, and sometimes when carried only 

 a few months worms get into the cigars and 

 the goods become worm-eaten, and there- 

 fore unfit to put on sale. So therefore it 

 can be seen that for many reasons the 

 English importers can profit more than 

 other importers by being intelligent in their 

 business. — London Tobacco. 



The following figures from the official 

 returns of the Cuban custom house show 

 the number of cigars shipped from the port 

 of Havana to all parts of the world during 

 the last eleven months ending November 

 30th : 

 August 25, 1909, in the administration of 



1913 1912 



164,969,777 161,330,221 



Receipts of leaf tobacco from the country 

 from January 1st to November 27th were 

 as follows : 



Vuelto Abajo 2.J3.7S.T bales 



Semi Vuelta 31.172 



Partido 16,632 " 



Remedios 16.'),331 



Oriente 7, .577 



New York Tobacco's Havana correspond- 

 ent mentions a proposition discussed among 

 tobacco men in the city which he says 

 might be made as a partial equivalent for 

 the loss that the Cuban sugar industry is 

 going to suffer through being less pro- 

 tected after [March 1, 1914. 



The new idea is to ask the United States 

 government not to levy any higher duty 

 on the cigars imported from Cuba than 

 what the American clear Havana cigar 

 manufacturers are going to pay under the 

 new law on cigars manufactured in bond. 

 Therefore if the bonded manufacturers in 

 the United States should only be assessed 

 a duty of $8 or $9 per 1,000 on cigars of 

 average sizes, we ought to get this same 

 allowance, by not paying any higher duty 

 than $8 or $9 per 1,000 on cigars of average 

 size, and a proportionate higher rate on the 

 more costly and heavier weight cigars. A 

 number of Senators admitted when the Un- 

 derwood Tariff Bill was under debate in 

 the United States Senate, that Cuba's claim 

 against the American government for an 

 equivalent was valid, as the latter by plac- 

 ing sugar on the free list in the year 1916 

 would inflict a hardship on Cuba's sugar 

 industry. Now as we have only two ar- 

 ticles of chief production, sugar and to- 

 bacco, the allowance to be made could only 

 be applied to tobacco and its manufactured 

 product, such as cigars, cigarettes and cut 

 tobacco. People in Havana argue, that un- 

 less Cuba should obtain a fair equivalent, 

 that she might as well denounce the present 

 reciprocity treaty entirely in the year 1916, 

 as otherwise the benefit would accrue en- 

 tirely to the exporters from the United 

 States, who now ship to Cuba goods to the 

 value of from $.50,000,000 to $60,000,000 

 annually, and try to obtain similar con- 

 cessions from other countries. Of course 

 this would be only the last resort, and Cuba 

 would by far prefer to make a new and 

 equitable reciprocity treaty with the United 

 States than with any other country. 



THE NEW CROP 



Nothing of a definite nature can be said 

 about the new crop, as everything will de- 

 pend upon the kind of weather we may 

 have up to the end of February. If we 

 only have sufficient light showers of rain, 

 the crop ought to turn out well, but a pro- 

 longed drought might give us a short and 

 pr)nr crop in the Vuelta Aliajo. 



It rained continuously in the \'uelta 

 Abajo section for ten days up to November 

 5th, and all the seed beds and plantings 

 were lost. Further plantings in a majority 

 of the districts were made aI)Out the middle 

 of December, which means a late crop but 

 not necessarilv a bad one. 



