by E. Edward Hoyt III, Editor

For the third consecutive year, imports of premium cigars to the U.S. fell, dropping by 22% last year to 262.1 million sticks compared to 369 million in 1999, according to statistics released by the Cigar Association of America (CAA). The rate of decline was steeper than the previous year, when premium imports fell by 13% from 1998 levels.

The 2000 totals have been adjusted to reflect the CAA's estimates of machine-made imports for both the Dominican Republic and Spain/Canary Islands inadvertently included in U.S. government totals for premium imports. An estimated 84 million cigars classified as premium from the Dominican Republic were actually machine-mades, and 80% of those from the Canary Islands are believed to have been machine-made.

Imports of premium cigars from the Dominican Republic - which accounted for 61% of all imports - fell by 35% to 128 million cigar from 197.5 million in 1999. Honduras, which holds the second-largest share of the U.S. market, accounting for 24% of all premium cigar imports, saw its volume of shipments edge up by 3% to 82.9 million last year. Nicaragua, which accounted for 6% of all premium imports, saw shipments dip slightly by 2%, to 21.5 million sticks cigars.

The largest drop in export volume to the U.S. among the top 15 supplier nations belonged to the Canary Islands, which saw imports plunge by 89% in 2000, to 285,000 down from 2.5 million in 1999.

Other supplier nations showing the largest volume drop in premium shipments to the U.S. were Switzerland (down 29% to 2 million), Mexico (down 27% to 4.4 million), Jamaica (down 26% to 4.7 million), and Germany (down 26% to 1.6 million.) Mexico maintained its number six position among supplying regions, while Costa Rica edged upward, moving from number 8 in 1999 to number 7 last year, thanks to a 3% increase in shipments to reach a 10-year high of 2.7 million sticks.

While the top five producing nations for the U.S. market remained the same, the Netherlands moved ahead of Jamaica to take the number four position, with Jamaica falling to number five. In all, the top five producing nations accounted for 95% of all premium cigar imports.

Of the remaining 5%, the Bahamas showed the largest jump, shipping 558,000 cigars last year compared to 5,000 in 1999, an 11,000% increase. Panama showed the next-largest gain, a 120% increase to 1.6 million sticks, followed by Indonesia which recovered to 606,000 sticks, a 60% increase over 1999 but a far cry from its 2.8 million sticks shipped here in 1998. Total imports of all types of cigars fell by 1% to 513 million last year, compared to 519 million in 1999. Small cigar imports jumped by 45.3% to 33.5 million last year compared to 23.0 million in 1999. Total non-premium large cigar imports (machine-made) jumped 44.6% from 92.1 million in 1999 to 133.2 million last year, or $.53 per cigar. The total declared value for all cigar imports was $273.4 million in 2000, down 1.7% from $278.2 million in 1999. Total declared value of all small cigars rose 23% to $2.58 million, or $.08 per cigar. Total declared value of premium cigars fell 3.7% to $257.9 million. Average per stick declared value rose 35.7% to $0.98, up from $0.73 in 1999.