Smokeshop

34 SMOKESHOP April 2016 A mere two years ago, Dominican Republic premium cigar maker Litto Gomez of La Flor Domini- cana was only selling his products in two countries outside of the U.S.—Germany and Norway, despite over two decades in the cigar business. Today, Gomez reports that La Flor Dominicana can be found in 48 countries, from Europe to Asia to Latin America and the Middle East. It's not just his own company that's seen a growing global interest in non-Cuban cigars, but part of an industry-wide trend. "I see a major change in the world markets," Gomez said at a press confer- ence featuring key members of Procigar, the Dominican Republic's cigar manu- facturer association, at this year's annual Procigar Festival in Santiago in February. "It's not happening in only one part of the world, it's happening all over… And our company is not the only one." Premium cigar brands from the Do- minican Republic are enjoying a higher profile than ever, thanks in no small part to the global marketing efforts of Da- vidoff of Geneva, Gomez noted, some- thing that has benefited the entire Do- minican cigar industry. "All these parts of the world have been traditionally smoking Cuban ci- gars for many, many decades," Gomez explained, noting that in the past, many international premium cigar consumers didn't smoke Dominican cigars because they didn't taste like Cuban cigars. "They are coming to realize that's not a problem, that's a good thing. And now they are not only enjoying the flavor pro- file of Cuban cigars, but also Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic—especial- ly the Dominican Republic, which has much more presence in most of the inter- national markets." Gomez compares the growing desire among cigar smokers in international markets to experience new flavors to the trajectory of the wine industry over time. "Traditionally, it used to be [mostly] French wines, but now people are enjoy- ing wines from Italy and Spain and Latin America and all over the world. They are all great wines and they all have different taste profiles—people are having a much richer experience," Gomez said, adding that the same phenomenon is happening in cigars and the trend is very positive for consumers who are having a "much broader, richer experience and a lot more choices of flavors to enjoy cigars." In addition to the high level of con- sistency and quality among Dominican cigars, Gomez says the other character- istic that defines them is the great vari- ety of flavors. "There's multiple choices of great Dominican blends," said Go- mez. "The great difference of flavors from manufacturer to manufacturer, from brand to brand I think is one of the great assets here in the Dominican Republic." Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard, c.e.o. of Oettinger Davidoff AG, also noted an en- couraging gain for Dominican cigars in the global market, specifically Dubai Air- port, a bright spot in Davidoff's import- ant travel retail and duty-free segment that otherwise was negatively influenced last year by a number of economic and political factors. "Dubai Airport…ce- mented its position as the number one international airport in the world with 78 million passengers," said Hoejsgaard, "up 10.7 percent from the year before." While overall cigars sales at the Dubai Airport were flat in 2015, he said, sales of Dominican cigars grew by seven percent, with Cuban cigars losing ground overall in the Middle East. "In general, Cuban cigars had a tough year, I think that's fair to say," said Hoe- jsgaard. "They have had a very bad har- vest the last couple of years and they have > PRODUCING REGIONS The Dominican Republic is the leading cigar producer in the world and leads the U.S. market, but globally it's beginning to make new inroads against the longtime leader, Cuba. Plus, other takeaways from Procigar Festival 2016. > BY E. EDWARD HOYT III Dominican Republic Cigars: Hints of Change in International Markets > Top: Cigar maker Litto Gomez, found- er of La Flor Dominicana, at his factory in Tamboril during the 2016 Procigar festival.

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