Report: Cigar Imports Keep Pace With 2023 Through First Five Months

From January-May 2024, the number of premium cigars imported into the U.S. is roughly the same as last year’s record-setting year.

According to the Cigar Association of America (CAA)—an industry trade group—the U.S. imported 154.55 million premium cigars from January to May 2024, roughly 350,000 fewer cigars compared to the same period of time last year. Last year, the U.S. imported 467.57 million premium cigars—a record—according to CAA.

Nicaragua, the largest exporter of premium cigars to the U.S., has imported 98.39 million premium cigars, roughly 2.85 million more cigars. The Central American country has imported 63.4 percent of premium cigars, a higher percentage compared to 2023. That’s because the second and third largest exporters, the Dominican Republic and Honduras, are both slightly down compared to last year.

CAA calculates these numbers based on both the import numbers provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Customs Services and information from cigar companies themselves. The trade group’s numbers are not exact because of reporting differences; it estimates how many “large cigars” were actually “premium cigars.” The difference between the two is that there are some machine-made cigars that meet the U.S. definition of a “large cigar,” though those cigars would not be considered premium cigars by most people.