Greek households are cutting expenses and spending less time at restaurants or hair salons. But one local luxury is defying the downturn -- cigars.
Business is good at Domenico Cigars, a tiny factory in central Greece that got its cigar seeds and secrets from Cuba.
Greece's unlikely cigar industry started five years ago in a valley 185 miles northwest of Athens, where conditions are ideally hot and damp. And last year, it set a record for output -- a modest 70,000 cigars.
Andreas Haralambous, head of the Agriculture Ministry's regional tobacco department, said conditions at Domenico are similar to Cuba's famed Pinar Del Rio region, where the strong-flavored Partagas tobacco is grown.
"Cuban tobacco varieties responded well in this area. The leaves are thin, they burn well and have a good aroma -- all good characteristics," he said. "The climate is damp and the soil is also similar, reddish."
Lazaros Tsouvelakidis, in charge of blends at Domenico, said buyers are lured initially by curiosity and the relatively low price. The cigars cost euro3.80 each, about the same as machine-made imports and about half the price of Cuba's hand-rolled cigars.
Tsouvelakidis and local Greek officials traveled to Cuba in 2003, after farmers grew tired of a price slump in cigarette tobacco. They went on tours of cigar-rolling factories and tobacco plantations.
