Cuban Regime Reports $721 Million in Tobacco Sales for 2024

Someone made a mistake. Either the official press or Habanos S.A. has erred, as the “record-breaking” sales figure reported for 2024 matches exactly with the one reported for 2023. Regardless, the regime celebrated this as a significant achievement amidst a severe foreign currency drought.

At the end of February, during the inauguration of the XXIV International Habano Festival, Habanos S.A. announced a historic revenue of $721 million for the year 2023, surpassing the previous year's results. The company highlighted a 31% increase in revenue compared to 2022, demonstrating the brand's continuous growth and global market strength.

In 2022, Habanos S.A., a subsidiary of the Tabacuba Business Group led by Marino Alberto Murillo Jorge, the former czar of the regime's economic reforms, recorded a revenue of approximately $497 million. However, it is noteworthy that on its 30th anniversary, Habanos S.A. again reported a record revenue of $721 million for 2024 in an interview with the Cuban News Agency (ACN), the same figure they announced during the festival for 2023.

Clearly, an error has been made in this "good news" circulating in the official press during a time of severe economic crisis. It isn’t a new record if it was already achieved before, or perhaps it is, but not for the current year.

Regardless of the discrepancy, the financial reports of Habanos S.A. suffer from the same issue as all financial information of state-controlled companies in the communist regime, especially those generating foreign currency. Despite their public participation, they maintain opaque accounting practices that prevent citizens from tracking where their money goes.

The term "public company" or "with public participation" implies that these companies are funded by the state budget, meaning the money is not allocated to other public investments such as hospitals, schools, or transportation.

Murillo Jorge must be pleased with the results of the company that oversees the promotion, distribution, and export of cigars and other tobacco products worldwide under his leadership.

Apart from the 17.8 million euros from the Humidor Auction at the XXIV Habano Festival, which the Cuban Presidency claims is allocated to the National Public Health System, there is no information on the destination of the remaining $700 million.

The Tabacuba Business Group comprises about 40 state-owned companies, three joint ventures (Habanos, S.A.; International Cuban Tobacco, S.A.; and Brascuba Cigarettes, S.A.), a 100% Cuban-owned commercial company, Tabagest S.A., and a research institute with three experimental stations in different tobacco-growing areas of the country.

In March, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel signed the luxurious Cohiba humidor, which sold for nearly $5 million at an auction that raised 17.8 million euros purportedly for Cuban "public health."

A month earlier, in Hoyos de Monterrey, a tobacco farmer acknowledged on Cuban Television that the farm his father worked on all his life, and which he continued to work on, was government-owned.

Tabacuba has a lot to explain, and it’s not just about their financial statements. Exploitation, corruption, theft... The world’s finest tobacco is produced by unhappy and underpaid workers, in near-slavery conditions not seen even in the worst times of the republic era.