Sometimes a well-know cigar is not just a cigar. From large hand rolled cigars and smaller once that are alike to cigarettes; there are approximately as many cigars as there are smokers to enjoy them. And as government officials pass standards for the whole industry, some from the cigar world are trying to make sure that their livelihoods and they products they like don’t go up in smoke. While the FDA has demonstrated its attempt to control cigars under a 2009 law that allow it the power over tobacco industry, it has yet to concertize what should be expected as it increases its efforts to eradicate the illnesses caused by smoking. It is just FDA’s regulation of cigarettes and any smoking products, which could ban particular flavors, demanding graphic health warnings, excluding any branding or logos and also pass restrictions on advertisement, marketing and sale of these products.

The premium cigar industry declares that any number of the restrictions could affect cigar producers and also special cigar stores, whose products constitute only a small part of tobacco sales and do not cause the same worries as cigarettes. Even the House Appropriations Committee stated in its report about the fiscal year 2013, declaring that premium cigars possess unique properties and cost outrage price points and are not advertised to children. “In case you are planning to direct your efforts on controlling smoking products to satisfy the Tobacco Control Act, where is better to spend those insufficient resources – on a 10% of the market or on the whole market?” asked Bill Spann, who represents more than 2,000 tobacco retailers and about 300 cigar producers and distributors.

According to the recent estimates, there are approximately 13 million cigar aficionados in the U.S., which is far less than the 45 million of cigarette smokers. U.S. tobacco sales increased $105 billion in 2011, and only 6%, or about $7.65 billion, consisted on cigars, according to findings presented by the Euro monitor International. Thus, of the 7 billion cigars sold per year, only 250 million of them are considered handmade cigars that differ in price from $2 to $25.

By Steve Shepherd, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2012 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.