YEREVAN, OCTOBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia has all prerequisites for becoming a regional expo-center for exhibition and sale of cigars, Garo Buldukian, the owner of Garo Habano Fine Cigars enterprise operating in the city of Santiago (the Dominican Republic) expressed this opinion during a talk with NT correspondent. He said that it will be possible to develop this sector of economy only through import and sale as there are no favorable climatic conditions for growing raw material for cigars in Armenia. According to G. Buldukian, Garo Habano Fine Cigars has 300 employees and produces 0.5 million cigars a year. He added that it is envisaged to increase production to 1 million cigars soon. The whole production is exported to the US and Europe. The Diasporan Armenian businessman noted that 4 types of cigars made by their enterprise were presented to the Armenian consumer at the "High Smoke 2007" international festival held in Yerevan in September. "Now we are waiting for responses, and in case of the respective offer we will cooperate with cigar importing and selling companies of Armenia," he said.

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