Sunday morning, the premium cigar world’s largest gathering will open its floor to manufacturers, retailers, distributors, suppliers and media. In many ways, the four days serve as a good spot check of the mood of the U.S. premium cigar business. Each year, there’s always a few questions we have going into the show, and dozens leaving the show. Rather than just looking at the three most important tobaccos, we’ve decided to also look into some trends that are hardly trending as the trade show nears. Will it burst? — Whether or not the FDA decides to wreck havoc on the cigar business, there’s a growing problem. In places like Estelí, Nicaragua factories are shedding orders as purchasing seems to have been reduced in the first six months of the year, particularly from some of the cigar industry’s largest buyers. There’s no tangible data, at least until the import numbers come out, but there is evidence of a bubble bursting.At nearly every factory, production seems to be up, rolling salons (or galleries) are expanding and workers are being added. That’s been the case year in, year out for the last few years and this growth has gone almost completely unchecked, until 2014. ...
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