In Cuba now. Price increases. Insanity.

[westg]

8 hours ago, Monterey said:

Every time there is a price increase we always get some comment from someone in a high tax country mention how good we have it.  We got it, sorry you elect officials that have implemented those tax rates.   This is about rising prices, not politics and countries tax policies. 

Sometimes all we can do is kindly vent about constant price increases.   This increase in Cuba impacts all of us equally.  At least those that buy on the island.

Oh, and thanks  RockemSockem for reporting on what you are seeing.  Let us know what else you see if you have the time.

Now I am  really laughing. I don't think you have it good at all. In fact I feel sorry for you. Know this,  I am all for the tax on alcohol and tobacco in Australia.( I never mentioned it) I think it's actually funny that somehow you make an argument over a few dollars. .As for your comment about someone in high taxed  countries mentioning increases well you clearly do not get it.

Those that do complain or comment ....well it's because it's hundreds of dollars per increase for a  box' . Not a just a few . 20 or 30 notes per stick not just three or four . 

 

 

[NSXCIGAR]

1 hour ago, westg said:

Incorrect. $140 for a Cohiba Robusto at local B&M . 4K for Esplendido.

I concede I was looking at Rob's prices in AUD. Those are below Cuba prices. B & Ms all bets are off but I find it hard to believe you can't find CoRo for less than $140 somewhere there. 

3 hours ago, El Presidente said:

I haven't seen the final pricing. I assume they will tie them to HK/thereabouts. 

For Cohiba and Trini the prices are higher than HK prices as of May 2022. Prices have been changed in Havana. New Cuba price for CoRo is $1,578.75. 

[havanaclub]

Incorrect. $140 for a Cohiba Robusto at local B&M . 4K for Esplendido. The initial post was complaining about paying 16 notes for RASS and 13 notes for a presidentes  . That is insanely cheap. A RASS here $86 . I had a laugh . 

I think the OP was just venting about the price increase for a stick that used to be 6 dollars or 151 a box in Cuba. Now almost 3x more 400! I am Canadian like the OP. I used to travel to Cuba yearly and always brought back several boxes, now that place is not even on my radar. I am assuming the OP has been to Cuba and he certainly knows Canadian prices but was used to paying Cuba prices. I think he is just letting people know on the board and is clearly frustrated at the price hike. I think it’s ok to be upset


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, Bill Hayes said:

I'd be interested to know if any of the custom rollers are still plying their trade? I think I read here that Reynaldo has moved on.

Rollers are in high demand everywhere and always. Alex went to Los Angeles last year and Reynaldo is now in Cancun. 

Melia Cohiba has been closed for a long time so I don't know if Juanita is rolling anymore. Most of the famous house rollers are dead or retired. Arnaldo at Palco is 1000 years old but still alive and kicking, and rolling. That's about it. 

 

51 minutes ago, havanaclub said:

I think he is just letting people know on the board and is clearly frustrated at the price hike. I think it’s ok to be upset

I took it that way as well, and I can sympathize as I am also upset with the price hikes in Cuba, to be clear. It has less to do with what I pay in absolute dollars and more about tourism suicide and more hardship for the Cuban people. 

[El Presidente]

12 minutes ago, havanaclub said:

 I think it’s ok to be upset
 

Of course it is OK to be upset.👍

It again is the 5 stages of grief.

The problem is those who want to groundhog day the first two stages of denial and anger

This OP is not in that category as he may not have been aware of the extent that Cuba prices were increasing. 

 

 

[Bijan]

4 minutes ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I took it that way as well, and I can sympathize as I am also upset with the price hikes in Cuba, to be clear. It has less to do with what I pay in absolute dollars and more about tourism suicide. 

I think tourism is still dead and they don't have the supply so they figure they might as well "gauge" people buying the odd box or a few singles as a souvenir.

Edit: we see it from our perspective as CC smokers but probably the majority of Canadian tourists (half their tourism or more) don't buy a single cigar in Cuba.

[El Presidente]

Too little stock

Too much unmet demand

No cash

No short term production turnaround.

Headlights are only looking 24 months ahead.

[westg]

1 hour ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I concede I was looking at Rob's prices in AUD. Those are below Cuba prices. B & Ms all bets are off but I find it hard to believe you can't find CoRo for less than $140 somewhere there. 

For Cohiba and Trini the prices are higher than HK prices as of May 2022. Prices have been changed in Havana. New Cuba price for CoRo is $1,578.75. 

A Behike 52 single $450 before the price increase. No BS that is insane . 

 

[Chas.Alpha]

For those of us in the US the price increase falls well within the realm of general relativity. We're not even supposed to be able to have the things...😳

[Fugu]

4 hours ago, El Presidente said:

Headlights are only looking 24 months ahead.

24 months?! You are giving them too much credit! 😄

[Fugu]

Agree with most you’ve said @Ken Gargett. But a Reyes has gone up in my country from under eight to now 32 EUR in the blink of an eye. I guess that would be unparalleled in the wine realm, not even for exceptional vintages, at least not that I could remember. 

[El Presidente]

1 hour ago, Fugu said:

24 months?! You are giving them too much credit! 😄

.....I am always more optimistic on Mondays 

[El Presidente]

49 minutes ago, Fugu said:

But a Reyes has gone up in my country from under eight to now 32 EUR in the blink of an eye. I guess that would be unparalleled in the wine realm, not even for exceptional vintages, at least not that I could remember. 

That would now  be the equivalent for a Reyes in HK/Oz/   .... UK? Still a touch cheaper in Spain at 26 euro. 

I didn't think they could level the markets. I still don't think that they can. They are giving it a red hot crack. 

[La_Tigre]

15 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

what i really struggle with (and this is not an attack solely on La T, just a convenient place for this) is people using the plight of the cuban people to whinge about price increases. let's be honest, while the vast majority of us greatly sympathise with what they have endured and wish better for them, by indulging in this hobby we have all put our personal enjoyment ahead of that plight and their struggles. okay, some may be able to go to the island and stay with family or make sure that as much as possible goes to locals, but that is really only ever going to be helping a few enterprising locals. any of us who travel to cuba must surely know that we are putting money in the coffers of that very government we might oppose. anyone buying a cuban cigar is doing the same. do whinge because you are now expected to put even more in their coffers. 

if the plight of the cuban people really meant that much to us, we would not go there and we would boycott cuban cigars. we don't. so claiming we oppose price increases because it will hurt the local people and benefit the government is truly one of the worst self-justifications i can think of. like it not, we are doing that.

IOO, This perspective is quite narrow, prejudged and overtly crass. Too much presumption about who does or does not benefit from the activities that were referenced. The focus leapt to agitation on current price whinging and just may have missed the entirety of the point of the post in order to drive a preconceived notion to self-fulfilling narration. Being pre-triggered by price complaints and moral passion plays may have been the cause?

Sure, none of us are donning the Superbeing cape to overthrow the evil Díaz-Canelmunism… we haven’t cast off all earthly material possession to the Cuban isles…reducing the point to that level of absurd idealism is unproductive. The basic economics of killing the tourism spend and the support that comes with it was the point.

As for us, we’ll still go and do as we do while there and enjoy the greatest cigars in the world…at a farm…and attempt to do some good along the way. 

[Fugu]

5 hours ago, El Presidente said:

That would now  be the equivalent for a Reyes in HK/Oz/   .... UK? Still a touch cheaper in Spain at 26 euro.

5th Ave distribution.

5 hours ago, El Presidente said:

I didn't think they could level the markets. I still don't think that they can. They are giving it a red hot crack.

Yup, and in particular holding for the Reyes. This has never been a “mainstream” or even a popular cigar. Had always been on the pricier side for the size. Only been bought by a few ‘amateurs’. That decent, unassuming format is not something you are smoking to ‘show off’. I don’t think they’ll move here. I for one am not a buyer anymore, priced out of the market for me. And I believe I’m not alone.

[SCgarman]

8 minutes ago, Fugu said:

5th Ave distribution.

Yup, and in particular holding for the Reyes. This has never been a “mainstream” or even a popular cigar. Had always been on the pricier side for the size. Only been bought by a few ‘amateurs’. That decent, unassuming format is not something you are smoking to ‘show off’. I don’t think they’ll move here. I for one am not a buyer anymore, priced out of the market for me. And I believe I’m not alone.

Yup, and when boxes of unsold Reyes pile up everywhere and collect dust one of two things will likely happen. They will either be axed, or priced down back to some sort of rational reality. $600usd/box? Nah.

[Fugu]

28 minutes ago, SCgarman said:

Yup, and when boxes of unsold Reyes pile up everywhere and collect dust one of two things will likely happen. They will either be axed, or priced down back to some sort of rational reality. $600usd/box? Nah.

EUR 768. 😂😭😭

Axed. Too much rolling effort. Little to no room to hide neutral tobacco. Tobacco will be diverted into inflated formats.

[Corylax18]

I'll be there in a week. Perfect timing, Haha. My last trip was mid March though and I bought about twice as may cigars as I could bring home, so I'm all set there. Some RP, but mostly farmies and custom rolls. It will be only custom Rolls and Farmies this trip. La Chine has been rolling again at the New Partagas shop, so I'll spend some time there watching her roll a couple bundles for me. 

I wont buy a single stick at the current prices, I'm just not a player in whatever bullshit game HSA is engaged in right now. I do however still plan to spend 2 full days driving around Havana checking prices/availability, so I'll provide a thorough update after that. 

Other than the landing/take off fees at the airport and the Taxes my Driver/Casa Owners pays, I don't contribute anything to the Government at this point. (I did through cigar purchases obviously) I stay only at Private Casa's, eat at Private Paladars and use independent drivers. My input to their coffers was already pretty low and they just allowed one of their "partners" to completely remove the largest chunk. 

 

3 hours ago, Fugu said:

EUR 768. 😂😭😭

Axed. Too much rolling effort. Little to no room to hide neutral tobacco. Tobacco will be diverted into inflated formats.

Yup, add two more flavorless leaves of Volado, Bump it up to a 55 RG, add shiny gold to the band and release it at an even higher price. A La QDO. Its genius and it will definitely keep working forever. 

[AirOne]

 

15 hours ago, westg said:

Incorrect. $140 for a Cohiba Robusto at local B&M . 4K for Esplendido. The initial post was complaining about paying 16 notes for RASS and 13 notes for a presidentes  . That is insanely cheap. A RASS here $86 . I had a laugh . 

Insanely cheap maybe. But even cheaper in Europe. Come visit us!!

[RockemSockem]

Hi guys. 
 

I want to share this spreadsheet that was sent to me. I don’t know how accurate all the numbers are, but the few prices I’ve checked seem to match (including the RASS and Presidente sticks I bought). No guarantees on this info!

Attached: New Cigar Prices in Cuba

You want to look at the column UNIDAD which is the $USD amount in Cuba.

Download the file and open in Excel. It’s throwing errors in my Googles sheets. 
 

Regards,

 

Copia de LP 002 Cadenas nuevo precio.xlsx

[bates40]

Given potential legal issues with travelling to the Motherland for a US citizen, I have zero desire to go back. Long gone are the days of coming back with a suitcase full of beautiful boxes which would last for years, all at great prices.......

[NSXCIGAR]

7 hours ago, Corylax18 said:

I do however still plan to spend 2 full days driving around Havana checking prices/availability, so I'll provide a thorough update after that. 

I've been told there's been no new stock since June 11 and it was pretty bad then. The best thing I found over 8 shops was a couple of Siglo II 5 x 5s. 

Hopefully there's a big drop right before you get there.

[Steverino]

A friend was just in Amsterdam. He went to the LCDH, saw a wall of cigars and asked to buy some.

They refused to sell any, saying they were waiting for the new prices.

Insanity, imdeed

[helix]

Cuba is fast losing its shine.

[ha_banos]

I wonder how much of Cuba's tourism is related to the cigar industry? Probably tiny proportion?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/06/cuba-tourism-recovery-pandemic