22 TOBACCO BUSINESS | JULY / AUGUST | 22 According to a May 2022 report from the Cigar Association of America (CAA), premium cigar imports are up so far in 2022. Compared to January 2021, import data showed a 3.8 percent uptick, with approximately 21 million handmade cigars having been shipped to the U.S. in January 2022. For the sake of comparison, 20.6 million handmade cigars were shipped to the U.S. in January 2021. The import data showed a 19 percent increase in Nicaraguan-made cigars being shipped to the U.S. in January 2022. This amounted to 14.7 million cigars and accounted for 68 percent of total shipments, making Nicaragua the top premium cigar importer. The next largest importer of cigars was Honduras, accounting for 33 percent of imports. Rounding out the imports was the Dominican Republic, which accounted for 3.3 million handmade cigar imports. This was a 40 percent decline brought on by ongoing impacts from the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused both staffing and supply chain issues. Previously, CAA issued a report showing that the U.S. cigar business experienced its best year yet in 2021. A record 456 million handmade cigars were imported into the country in 2021, as reported by CAA and written about in “A Record Year for Cigars,” which was published in the May/ June 2022 issue of Tobacco Business magazine. While these numbers are estimates, they do correlate with the increased consumption of premium cigars reported by many companies over the past two years. The 2021 report issued by the CAA showed a 25.3 percent increase in cigar imports between 2020 and 2021. Nicaragua led the way in terms of cigar imports, having shipped 240.9 million handmade cigars in 2021. This was a 29.4 percent increase compared to the 2020 numbers in the same report. The Dominican Republic shipped 129.5 million cigars (a 22.5 percent increase) while Honduras shipped 84.2 million (an 18.3 percent increase). CAA’s numbers are based on import data provided by the U.S. Customs Service, U.S. Census Bureau and various cigar manufacturers. TB A STARTUP : MARKETWATCH GOOD NEWS FOR U.S. PREMIUMCIGAR IMPORTS Poda Holdings Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement with Altria Client Services, a subsidiary of Altria Group Inc., to sell all of its assets and properties used to develop, manufacture and market multi-substrate heated capsule technology. This includes Poda selling its patents related to heated capsules and Poda’s exclusive, perpetual license of certain patents pursuant to an amended and restated royalties agreement dated April 12, 2019, for a total purchase price of $100.5 million, subject to certain adjustments and holdbacks. Poda’s patented heat-not-burn (HNB) technology makes it a strategic buy for Altria, which has been making investments outside of traditional combustible tobacco products. Altria has a licensing deal in place that enables it to distribute Philip Morris International’s IQOS in the U.S., although a patent infringement case ruling has temporarily prevented the company from importing the popular HNB device into the U.S. This new purchase agreement with Poda Holdings could give Altria another way to take part in the U.S.’s growing HNB market. PODA SELLS IP ASSETS TO ALTRIA FOR $100.5 MILLION Photography courtesy of Poda Holdings Inc.
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