“Leaked diplomatic correspondence” shows that Andy Burnham is “embroiled” in a row with Cuba over Britain’s “looming ban” on cigars, according to The Telegraph.
Cuba’s former president Fidel Castro, who was often photographed puffing away, said the cigar “made our country famous” and gave it “prestige”. But now the island’s cigar industry is facing a perfect storm of existential challenges.
The Cuban ambassador in London, Ismara Mercedes Vargas Walter, has been writing to the UK government since 2024 to express concerns about plans for a “smoke-free Britain”, the leaked correspondence reveals. Diplomats from Honduras and the Dominican Republic have also weighed in.
The incoming generational smoking ban, which was originally proposed during Rishi Sunak’s reign as PM, will “disproportionately impact cigar-producing countries” and amounts to an “unjustified barrier to trade”, argue the Caribbean and Central American nations. They claim that cigars “neither contribute to youth smoking initiation nor share the same public health profile as cigarettes”.
The rift is thought to have “deepened” after the UK government opened a consultation on extending the smoking ban to premium cigars.
Cuba’s cigar industry also faces other threats including climate change – which is making growing conditions increasingly unpredictable – and the difficulty of finding workers. But since the US imposed a “de facto oil blockade on the island, the country’s cigar industry is facing its greatest challenge yet”, said Al Jazeera.
In February, Cuba’s “iconic” annual cigar fair was postponed, said The Associated Press. Tabacuba, a state-run tobacco company, blamed “the complex economic situation” that the island was facing due to the “intensification of the economic, commercial and financial blockade” imposed by the US. The organisers did not set a new date for the 26th edition of the fair. |
