Los Angeles, March 25, 2009 – “I’m always scared. It’s not a business, but a necessity to survive.”
That’s how a cigar maker named Pedro characterized his life as a maker of counterfeit Havana brands. In a story by the international news service Agence France Presse, the 33-year-old Pedro said he learned to make cigars in a legitimate Cuban factory and was paid the normal state wage of about $17 (U.S.), but became a counterfeit cigar maker about five years ago.
He gets tobacco from farmers in the famed Pinar del Rio region and told AFP that he obtains boxes, bands and packaging from workers in actual Cuban cigar factories. One of Pedro’s “retail” sellers, identified in the story as Juan said “It’s not that difficult to get supplies from factories because all the administrative services work separately, so they’re not suited to check-ups.”
The Cuban customs and police authorities have been chasing counterfeiters with increasing intensity and confiscate from 1,500-1,700 boxes of unlicensed production every month. But Pedro continues, driven to the trade, he says, by his father’s health crisis five years ago.
“No one knows what I’m doing here, not even members of my family,” he said. “It’s very dangerous. I’d like to give it up, or work outside Cuba where you get paid for the value of your work.”
Operators like Pedro and Juan stay busy because tourists buy their cigars on the street, often being approached by solicitors who dart in front of people walking in downtown Havana. Better counterfeiters often have packaging which can be close to, or nearly identical to that of legitimate Habanos cigars. It’s a problem that has been going on for decades and isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
Pedro told AFP that he can make about 100 cigars a day and that a box of 25 will sell for $30-40 U.S. on the street (in cash, of course), a fraction of the price of genuine Habanos. “Forgeries and the black market are two scourges which really affect the image of Havana cigars,” said Habanos general counsel Adargelio Garrido, “one the one hand because the products are false and on the other because they affect the distribution network that we’ve built up.”
I thought that this was an interesting report in the current issue of CigarCyclopedia.
That’s how a cigar maker named Pedro characterized his life as a maker of counterfeit Havana brands. In a story by the international news service Agence France Presse, the 33-year-old Pedro said he learned to make cigars in a legitimate Cuban factory and was paid the normal state wage of about $17 (U.S.), but became a counterfeit cigar maker about five years ago.
He gets tobacco from farmers in the famed Pinar del Rio region and told AFP that he obtains boxes, bands and packaging from workers in actual Cuban cigar factories. One of Pedro’s “retail” sellers, identified in the story as Juan said “It’s not that difficult to get supplies from factories because all the administrative services work separately, so they’re not suited to check-ups.”
The Cuban customs and police authorities have been chasing counterfeiters with increasing intensity and confiscate from 1,500-1,700 boxes of unlicensed production every month. But Pedro continues, driven to the trade, he says, by his father’s health crisis five years ago.
“No one knows what I’m doing here, not even members of my family,” he said. “It’s very dangerous. I’d like to give it up, or work outside Cuba where you get paid for the value of your work.”
Operators like Pedro and Juan stay busy because tourists buy their cigars on the street, often being approached by solicitors who dart in front of people walking in downtown Havana. Better counterfeiters often have packaging which can be close to, or nearly identical to that of legitimate Habanos cigars. It’s a problem that has been going on for decades and isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
Pedro told AFP that he can make about 100 cigars a day and that a box of 25 will sell for $30-40 U.S. on the street (in cash, of course), a fraction of the price of genuine Habanos. “Forgeries and the black market are two scourges which really affect the image of Havana cigars,” said Habanos general counsel Adargelio Garrido, “one the one hand because the products are false and on the other because they affect the distribution network that we’ve built up.”
I thought that this was an interesting report in the current issue of CigarCyclopedia.