Georgia aiming to expand cigar exports

Cigars from Georgia’s Adjara region could soon appear on the shelves of shops in other countries if their manufacturer, Imeri, is successful in its current export campaign, according to a story on Agenda.ge.

Imeri cigars have already been exported to Turkey, where they are available in duty free shops, and now the company is said to be involved in negotiations for their export to China.

The company’s director Tamaz Turmanidze told Agenda.ge that he had taken Georgian cigars to China where they had been well received. Now, Chinese investors were in Georgia discussing specific issues related to the export of the cigars to China.

Meanwhile, Imeri is said to be negotiating with Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Kazakhstan and Belarus about the export of Georgian cigars.

Imeri cigars are sold locally in the towns of Kutaisi, Batumi, Zugdidi, Poti and the capital Tbilisi, but the company was financed as part of a state program aimed at exporting traditional Georgian goods. In all, US$250,000 was invested in the company, of which US$40,000 was in the form of an agricultural credit.

Imeri has been producing Georgian handmade cigars, cigarillos and six kinds of wrapping tobaccos since 2014, and currently it produces more than 30 types of cigars and about 60 cigar accessories.

The first Georgian cigar samples were made on May 5, 2009, in Indonesia, where a traditional Georgian oriental tobacco variety, which Imeri has been growing in trial batches since 2007, was combined with tobacco grown in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Indonesia