By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The emblematic Habano Festival, one of the most important forums in the world sector of the famous Cuban cigars, was postponed due to to the tense energy situation of the island after pressure from the United States.
The organizing committee reported on the suspension of the next edition – number XXVI – which was scheduled between February 23 and 27, “with the aim of preserving the highest standards of quality, excellence and experience that characterize this international event,” indicated an official note from the Habanos SA firm.
The note from the joint firm recalled that the festival brings together every year “fans, experts, distributors and specialized media from around the world to celebrate the culture, tradition and prestige of the cigar”, so the decision to postpone it “seeks to guarantee an optimal environment for the difficult development of the activities.”
During these decades, the festival became one of the moments more elegant and glamorous of the island with the arrival of high-level smokers, millionaire buyers and celebrities. Personalities from dozens of countries come to develop a program that includes everything from visits to tobacco plantations and assembly classes to product tasting.
Last year’s gala dinner closed as it usually does, with an auction that reached a bid of 18 million dollars for the most sought-after torcidos in the world, usually in cases that are also works of art in themselves.
The Habanos SA statement indicated that the organizing committee is seeking to set a new date for the event.
Habanos SA is a joint company formed by a Cuban state agency and the Ibero-British Altadis. It maintains a monopoly on the global marketing of island hand-twisted products through some 27 brands, from the most prestigious in the world such as Cohíba to Partagas or Romeo y Julieta.
Founded in 1994, the Habanos SA firm reported in 2025, during the opening of its XXV edition, record sales for 2024 of 827 million dollars, 16% more than in the previous cycle.
Cuba faces a tense energy situation after the United States’ assault on Venezuela – one of its main allies – and an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump late in which he threatened any country that tries to sell oil to the island with imposing tariffs on its products.
These events aggravated a serious crisis with long blackouts of up to 10 hours and which now also led to emergency measures by the Cuban government, such as cuts in working hours and fuel rationing.
Trump assured that he hopes to suffocate the Cuban economy to pressure a change of government. Experts warn that it could lead to a humanitarian crisis for the small Caribbean island.
This week, the authorities informed the airlines that they did not have fuel to supply at the airports, so some canceled flights and others maintained their routes, but refueled in places like the Dominican Republic.
For its part, in the same statement from Habanos SA, the state-owned company Tabacuba, one of those involved in the marketing of tobacco on the island, regretted the suspension of the Habano Festival motivated “by the complex economic situation facing the country, as a result of the policy of tightening the economic, commercial and financial blockade” of the United States.
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