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I was reading an article somewhere that seemed to agree with Jam in a way. They thinking was demand would go up so quality would fall.
--Mike
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What makes you think the Castro government would walk away from the business? And most of the families have gone on to other countries or sold their "rights" to someone else.
You have to remember that most of the folks that left in the sixties want their properties back. That will never happen. Most of them have been gone for close to fifty years and they have no proof they ever owned anything let alone they ever lived there.
Quality would surely suffer until the novelty wears off, but I don't think much will change for a while yet.
You also must think about the trademark issues and who will sell what.
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(02-17-2011, 10:24 AM)wtfdic Wrote: I was reading an article somewhere that seemed to agree with Jam in a way. They thinking was demand would go up so quality would fall.
At an event at a B&M up here, the sales rep who seemed like he knew what he was talking about told us (Pete, myself and a few other locals not on these forums) that back in 2001 there was a point where it appeared as though the embargo would be lifted. in preparation for that event, the quality control on the cuban cigars suffered a great deal. According to the sales rep (I forget what company he was with) he said immediately when asked: "What cubans should we get if they were made available?" (his answer) ""Anything but any product produced in 2000 or 2001"".
Those years are what I remember, because I really didnt file that information under permanent storage...mostly because I haven't got a source for nor am I ever planning to visit to get my own.
...moving along...nothing left to see here.
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Its always good to have these conversations but reality is it will never be lifted in any near future. Just my opinion.
As Mr. Mum says "make the time you wont regret it"
2010 the year I got my a$$ handed to me from my fellow SC brothers!
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Jimmy I think you are referring to investments in Cuba made by outside interests. Not the farms/plantations formally owned by political disadents who fled Cuba in the sixties. That's who I was referring to.
I would agree that their are plenty of claims out the for all kinds of properties but the chances of the tobacco families being made whole again - I think they would be better off trying to win the lottery. Jmho.
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Up until last year one of the people I regularly herfed with was the former head of the National Bank of Cuba ( not the real name but I don't remember the correct one). Anyway, he told me that one of the first things that Castro did when someone defected was all of their records, personal and especially financial, were found and destroyed. He said that in the early sixties military auditors were placed in every bank and that was their sole function. Make any and all history disappear.
All deeds and mortages were destroyed as all land was owned by the government. They lease the land to whomever uses it now and that is the only records that still exist inside of Cuba.
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02-17-2011, 03:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-17-2011, 03:05 PM by Parkster.)
I have watched a good few holiday programmes about Cuba, and have a few friends who have vacationed there and with the exception of Kurtis, they all say the same thing.
Cuba ..... it will be nice when its finished.
The problem is half a century of minimal maintenance through lack of equipment, resources and money ..... everybody has plenty of time and are very good at making do and doing what they can .... but for most of us the accommodation and most of everything else for that matter will fall short of our expectations in comparison to what we are used to.
I think that it will take at least a decade of throwing money and resources (lots of both) at Cuba to get it back to what it was.
As for the cigar industry there ..... it will obviously fall short of the quality experienced now as each of the brands scrambles to make as much money as they can as quickly as they can .... its obvious that since the government wont be making all of the profits any more that the bosses for each label will try to get rich quick.
Lifting the embargo could be the worst thing to happen to the cigar industry there, in the short term, but it would be a fresh lease of life for the whole country that would eventually (hopefully) turn it back in to that "place to be" that it was in the 60's ...... hopefully without the mob this time hahahahahaha.
The 2 most important days of your life are: The day you were born & the day you find out why
