
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
2| TOR IMPORTS
or preservatives are added. Cigars are
simply the dried, rolled leaves of a
strain of black tobacco.
We see our cigars as a lifestyle choice,
just like drinking in moderation.
The entire premium cigar category
is less than one per cent of tobacco
consumption in the UK. Unfortunately,
we are treated the same as
multinational companies selling billions
of cigarettes. We must ensure we fully
comply with all statutory requirements,
such as placing health warning stickers –
by hand – on every cigar box and tin of
pipe tobacco. In 2017, the management
time and cost of implementing new
EU TPD2 legislation was ten per cent
of our gross margin and, to ensure
compliance, this overhead keeps
increasing. For a small rural business of
our size, that’s hard to swallow.
Education
We spend a lot of time educating the
trade about how this artisanal business
supports families living in poverty
in Central America. We co-ordinate
educational trips for our customers to
Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic
to visit the cigar factories and the
people who make them so skilfully.
We also act in an advisory capacity
for our customers – telling them what
they must do to make sure they are
compliant with constantly evolving
legislation. That helps them to focus on
selling the products, comfortable in the
knowledge that they are compliant.
Most of our customers and clients
are family-owned businesses. Joya de
Nicaragua, for example, is Nicaragua’s
oldest premium cigar manufacturer
and has managed to keep its doors
open through war, revolution and
crippling poverty over the past 50
years. They support hundreds of
families in Central America’s poorest
country, helping finance scholarships,
healthcare and food to bring a better
life to these proud people. Ambassador
Guisell Morales-Echaverry, from the
Embassy of Nicaragua explained:
“ I wish to highlight the
significance of the cigar industry
in Nicaragua, where we can
vehemently affirm that it is
one of the cornerstones for
combating poverty.
Above all, the cigar industry
is one of families, from co-
operatives of growers and
producers to owners and
importers, like Tor Imports. In
the last few years, the industry
has experienced a steady
growth. By 2015, according to
the Nicaraguan Central Bank,
it generated 11.5 per cent of
the total employment under the
free zone regime and globally
exported US$200 million, which
represents 6.2 per cent of the
total country exports. Today,
the cigar industry is one of the
largest employers in the country.
Lastly, when one thinks of cigars,
one should not only think about
the passion of cigar smoking, but
also be mindful as policymakers
and consumers, of the benefits
that this industry brings to
developing nations and to British
family businesses.”
La Joya tobacco fields in
Estelí, Nicaragua
We spend a
lot of time
educating the
trade about
how this
artisanal
business
supports
families living
in poverty in
Central
America
“
“