Pacific delights
Indonesia is finding its own cigar history and experiencing a boom in sales. Pieter Tesch looks
at how the world is now taking this nation seriously as a cigar producer
Indonesia is rediscovering its own honourable cigar tradition after it turned its back after independence from the Dutch more than 60 years ago on the cigar as the symbol of colonial rule.It was synonymous with the image the Dutch planter with his cigar made with the best Indonesian tobaccos from Deli in northern Sumatra, or Vorstenlanden or Besuki from Java, clinched in his mouth overseeing the plantation and being the virtual unopposed ruler in his district.
Instead Indonesia merdeka (free Indonesia) elevated kretek, the humble domestic handmade cigarette of native tobacco rolled with cloves and the smoke of choice of the ordinary Indonesian, as the national symbol of the confident independent Indonesia.
However, things are changing and a younger more affluent generation of Indonesians successful in international commerce or the arts and diplomacy regard the enjoyment of a cigar as a sign of success.
“Smoking a cigar has become again an acceptable lifestyle choice, but unfortunately most Indonesians have forgotten that their own country produces some of the best cigar tobaccos in the world and instead will choose a Cuban or Meso American cigar rather than an Indonesian one,” Nugroho Widjaja, PT Djarums’s cigar marketing manager said.
Djarum is one of Indonesia’s premier kretek manufacturers and while others such as Sampoerna are now part of the world’s major tobacco conglomerates Djarum is still an independent family firm ambitious to develop the business further with.....
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By Pieter Tesch
Section : Market Watch
Page number : 18
Published in Cigar Buyer Issue 12 on 12/09/2007.
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