Rise in fake cigars worry manufacturers

Beware of fake cigars. They may be a home for creepy crawlies that could make you throw up.

This is the warning from Manuel Garcia, vice-president of Habanos S.A., the state-sanctioned cigar export arm of Cuba.

"We have to protect the integrity of our cigars and tobacco products, which are Cuba's third-largest foreign exchange generators, after tourism and nickel," said Garcia, who recently opened the fifth La Casa Del Habano franchise in the UAE.

He also opened a new cigar shop in Tehran, which will be followed by another in Muscat. La Casa del Habano, owned by Baqer Mohebi Establishment, a subsidiary of the Zainal Mohebi Group, is the exclusive Gulf franchisee of Habanos SA.

The UAE accounts for 50 per cent of the Gulf's cigar market, which is set to grow as evidenced by the simultaneous opening of three new outlets.

"Cuban cigars are known as the best in the world … aged by a 500-year-old tradition. But we've had problems with parallel imports as well as those who peddle fake ones," said Mohammad Mohebi, chief executive of the Mohebi Group, which has been representing Cuban cigar exporters in the country for 40 years.

He said fakes are rejected products passed off as real items, sold for half the price.

Cigars are slapped with a 100 per cent tax in the UAE. "Any importer that does not pay the proper taxes on cigars is defrauding the government. We have been working closely with the authorities to curb the illicit trade."

In this cat-and-mouse game, three shops in the UAE have been closed for selling fake cigars, Mohebi said.

Enterprise
Cigar boom spawns illicit factories

- Illicit cigar factories have sprung up in Central America, which capitalised on the cigar boom in the United States and Europe.

- Several enterprising counterfeiters ship the fakes to the United States as non-Cubans and repackage them in counterfeit Cuban cigar boxes for distribution in other countries.