Exalting and enhancing the cigar culture in the world has marked the purposes of the Corporation Habanos that is the organizer of the 2017 Havana Cigar Festival, which successfully concluded its 19th annual edition.

The intense week dedicated to Havana Cigar, between February 27 and March 3, exceeded expectations with the assistance of national and foreign experts and exhibitors, who showed their excellent offers of gastronomy, crafts, fashion and culture, and the whole universe related to the Puro Premium.

The festival presents a fair, which has become with its development, a distinctive event for the meeting not only of manufacturers and producers of the cigar world, but also for handicraft workers, collectors, and suppliers of accessories for the smoker, manufacturers of luxury goods, printers, and transporters and suppliers of gourmet products.

On this occasion, the fair featured 67 stands from Germany, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Spain, France, Panama and, of course, Cuba. Once more, there was an extraordinary participation of Cuban exhibitors, 48 in total, with a varied offer in innumerable fields already mentioned.

Once again, the fair was the ideal setting for technical and commercial exchanges amongst businessmen, suppliers and the participating public.

A tour of the culture of Havana Cigar took us to the festival, which not only admitted its defenders, who are many, but others who recognize, besides the act of smoking and tasting an exquisite cigar, its tradition and art, of which Cubans are very proud.

Ambassadors of the use and enjoyment of Havana cigars are habanosommelier. These most distinguished gastronomic guides who are able to conquer the customers, with the best recommendations based on their skills and deep knowledge of each aspect of the service of the Havana cigar, were faced by a prize in the International Competition that held its sixteenth annual edition.

The panel of judges consisted of five renowned experts from the world, presided over by Mr. José Hilario Font, Habanos Prize, president of the Epicure Club and director of the same magazine, presented his award to Felipe Rojas from Chile representing Puro Tabaco of the Andean nation. The second place went to Slavomir Marek Bielicki from the United Kingdom, while the third was held by Krystian Hordejuk from the United Arab Emirates.

An approach to characteristics and quality parameters of tobacco parts, exposure of the leaves (wrapper, filler and binder), its function, the rolling of cigars to achieve a correct combustion, amongst other aspects. In the last day, experts of the Cuban Cigar Industry gave a conference highly appreciated by the participants in the International Seminar.

At the closing of the trade fair, several awards were given in various categories to the exhibitors who participated in the meeting. Thus, BRASCUBA Cigarrillos S.A. received the award for the Best Free Design Stand; BONGHAN S. A., Italy, for Best Modular Stand Design, the CIMEX Business Group of Cuba won the award for the Most Visited Stand, and worthy of particular mention was Havana Club International S.A for Integrated Communications.

Towards its twentieth annual edition, the Habana Cigar Festival is already in progress, an event that reaffirms the continuity of the Havana cigars, which are icons of Cuba. For many, one of its jewels, where tradition is mixed with legends dating back to more than 500 years.