Made in USA from Cuban tobacco

[Çnote]

https://www.wfla.com/news/local-news/this-day-in-history-1st-cuban-cigar-rolled-in-ybor-city/

[Jackdani7401]

I wonder what the CC market/industry would be like if the embargo never went into effect and CC’s could still be rolled in the US🤔

[Corylax18]

13 minutes ago, Jackdani7401 said:

I wonder what the CC market/industry would be like if the embargo never went into effect and CC’s could still be rolled in the US🤔

Probably not all that different. The embargo didn't kill the Cuban Cigar industry, Nationalizing it did. Castro Nationalized everything, long before the embargo.

[Çnote]

7 hours ago, Jackdani7401 said:

I wonder what the CC market/industry would be like if the embargo never went into effect and CC’s could still be rolled in the US🤔

I'm going to do some crazy thinking and get back to you on this. 🤪 

[Çnote]

So, with a little wiki and basic Google, you could make the argument that the soft embargo of 1959 jumpstarted an existing but nascent DR cigar industry and the hard embargo of 1962 created the Nicaraguan industry. No embargo, no real competition to Cuban cigars. No Padron, no Fuente.

Had Cuba not undergone nationalization, there would be market forces to ensure that Davidoff did not move manufacturing from Cuba, inadvertently causing the USA cigar boom by allowing the high profile brand in the world at that time to be sold in USA. Possibly no 1990's USA cigar boom.

So, of course, market forces could have forced the later establishment of DR and Nicaraguan industries with Cuban backing in the 1960's or 1970's, given that international demand outstripped Cuban supply. This would be curious but possible given the economy of Britain, Germany, and Spain at the time. I think it would happen much later, perhaps late 1980's. In either case, rather than cigar super-premiumization happening 'now,' it would have happened at more of the same time as wine and spirits, so roughly BX futures 1995 and the introduction of Grey Goose vodka, maybe as late as the beginning of USA whiskey push c2003 and BX releases 2000.

Cuban cigars could be more expensive, with less competition in a no-embargo scenario.

I invite all comments and criticism. I'm at work with nothing to do.