Industry News
Honduras Announces First National Cigar Festival as Central American Calendar Fills
Honduras — now the second-largest supplier of premium cigars to the United States — is finally getting a festival to match. President Nasry Asfura announced on August 20, 2026, that the country will host its first national Honduras Cigar Festival from January 22 to 25, 2027, opening in Tegucigalpa before moving to Danlí, the eastern region where roughly 70% of the country's exported cigars are rolled.
It caps a summer in which Central America's cigar-festival map has been redrawn — with Cuba conspicuously absent from the marquee circuit.
A Festival Years in the Making
The announcement followed a meeting at the presidential palace between Asfura and the Consejo de Artesanos del Tabaco de Honduras (CATAH), the artisan council that will organize the event. CATAH is chaired by Nestor Plasencia, with an organizing circle that reads like a who's who of Honduran tobacco: Christian and Julio Eiroa of CLE, Maya Selva, and Scandinavian Tobacco Group's Agustin Garcia.
The program sketches out the familiar festival formula — gala dinners, tastings, and visits to the farms and factories around Danlí, home to about a dozen major operations including Davidoff's Camacho facility. Beyond the celebration, the government and CATAH discussed founding a specialized school in Danlí to train the next generation of cigar rollers, ensuring the longevity of the craft.
"Honduras built the industry — now it's throwing the party."
Honduras has earned this spotlight through sheer volume and quality. The country shipped 74.5 million premium cigars to the U.S. in 2025, an 11% increase. In the first quarter of 2026, it passed the Dominican Republic to become America's No. 2 source of premium cigars for the first time, according to Cigar Aficionado import data. The industry currently employs more than 35,000 people. While a 2011 attempt called Humo Jaguar failed to become a recurring event, this new effort carries the full weight of the presidency.
The Region Fills Cuba's Gap
The timing of the announcement is pointed. Cuba's Festival del Habano — long the cigar world's marquee event — was canceled this year amid the island's energy crisis, marking its third cancellation since 1999. Into that vacuum, the rest of the region is stepping up:
- Nicaragua: The PuroSabor festival runs the week after Honduras's new dates, creating a back-to-back Central American festival fortnight.
- Costa Rica: The U.S.-based Premium Cigar Association (PCA) announced on August 12 that it will co-organize Costa Rica's Puro Vida Cigar Festival this November 21–22, 2026.
PCA chief Joshua Habursky framed the Costa Rican partnership as a way to build bridges across the industry's international wings, offering curated programming and education through the PCA's Cigar Academy.
What It Means for Cigar Fans
For American smokers, festival season is more than a party circuit — it is where limited editions debut and the year's industry buzz is established. A strong Honduran festival will shine a light on the brands rolled in Danlí that already fill U.S. premium cigar humidors, including Plasencia, Camacho, CLE, and Maya Selva.
Travel-minded enthusiasts now have a genuine choice of destinations — Costa Rica in November, Honduras in late January, and Nicaragua immediately following — at a moment when the traditional Havana pilgrimage is increasingly unreliable. The cigar world's center of gravity has been drifting from Cuba to Central America for years; the 2027 calendar appears to make that shift official. For those who prefer smaller formats, the rise of Central American tobacco is also reflected in the quality of modern Cigarillos & Small Cigars available today.