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During the closing ceremony of the 25th Habanos Festival in Havana on February 28, 2025, a woman was seen enjoying a cigar amid a humidor auction.
The annual cigar festival, a hallmark event in Cuba’s capital, was initially scheduled for a five-day run in late February. However, it has now been indefinitely postponed due to the country’s worsening economic situation.
The postponement reflects the significant challenges facing Cuba’s communist government, which is navigating its most severe crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Habanos S.A., the organization responsible for the festival, announced on Saturday that the decision to suspend the event was made to maintain the high standards of quality and excellence that define this international gathering.
The festival’s organizing committee mentioned that they are actively working on rescheduling the event but did not provide specific details on when it might take place.
The organizing committee said it was working on setting a new date for the fair, without providing further details.
The festival has previously welcomed more than 1,000 guests from around 80 countries, with attendees participating in auctions and touring tobacco plantations.
Premium Cuban cigars are globally renowned and considered of high economic importance, serving as one of the island’s main exports and a major source of foreign currency. They are illegal in the U.S., however, due to a decades-old trade embargo.
Last year, Habanos. S.A., a state-run entity that holds a monopoly on global sales of Cuban cigars, reported record sales of $827 million in 2024, reflecting a 16% increase compared to the year prior.
A man stares at black smoke billowing from a fire at the Nico Lopes oil refinery in Havana on February 13, 2026.
Yamil Lage | Afp | Getty Images
Cuba is currently grappling with a severe fuel shortage amid a U.S. oil blockade.
The Trump administration has effectively cut Cuba off from Venezuelan oil since launching a military operation to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.
U.S. President Donald Trump has since called its government “an unusual and extraordinary threat” and pledged to impose tariffs on any country that supplies it with oil.
Cuba’s government, which has condemned U.S. pressure, has recently adopted measures to protect essential services and ration fuel supplies for key sectors.
Cuba’s dwindling oil supplies prompted the United Nations to warn of a possible humanitarian “collapse” earlier in the month.
“The Secretary-General is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, which will worsen, and if not collapse, if its oil needs go unmet,” said UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
