Habanos S.A. postpones 26th Festival del Habano amid Cuba energy crisis

Habanos S.A. posted a brief statement on its website on Feb. 14, 2026, saying the 26th Festival del Habano is “postponed” and that a new date will be “announced in due course.” The flagship Havana event, widely reported as scheduled for Feb. 23–27 (some outlets listed Feb. 24–27), will not proceed as planned and organizers said the move aims to protect the event’s standards and experience.

Trade and community reporting linked the decision to an acute energy and fuel crisis on the Island, citing interruptions to oil supplies that Cuba had imported from Venezuela and Mexico, chronic foreign currency shortages, and thermoelectric plants that operate only sporadically because many are obsolete. Sources also referenced a Jan. 29 U.S. executive order that threatened tariffs on countries supplying fuel to Cuba as a pressure point affecting imports and logistics.

Not all reporting framed causality the same way. FOHCigars and a Cigar Journal forum post said the postponement “began to be considered quite some longer time ago, but was finalized more than a month ago,” arguing that recent airplane fuel shortages merely aggravated an already difficult situation. FOHCigars summarized the position this way: “Officially, it is not a cancellation, but there is no date set for its celebration either,” and added that “The people must come first. Everything else can wait.”

Grupo Empresarial Tabacuba, the state tobacco business group, expressed “regret for the postponement” and attributed the decision to “the complex economic situation facing the country as a result of the policy of intensifying the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the Government of the United States against Cuba.” Organizers also framed the postponement as necessary “with the aim of preserving the highest standards of quality, excellence, and experience that characterize this international event.”

Distributors and buyers felt the disruption before the public notice. Multiple international distributors reported receiving email notices in advance and several began issuing refunds to ticket-holders; forum posts from users including “Cigar Surgeon” and “ha_banos” recorded the surge of confirmations and rumors, with ha_banos posting on Feb. 13: “Still no official announcement though.” Forum user “Ryan” posted a string of rumors, “Postponed indefintely. Postponed until November. Not postponed but reduced daytime events during the original planned week”, and a personal anecdote about securing “200 litres of fuel in spare tanks” to travel between Havana and Viñales.

The Festival del Habano, launched in 1999, routinely draws distributors, retailers, suppliers and consumers for seminars, factory tours and gala dinners. The gala humidor auction raised “more than $15 million each year” in 2023 and 2024, funds that support the Cuban healthcare system. The 26th Festival’s postponement is the first official break in the event’s sequence since its 1999 debut; the 2021 and 2022 editions had been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a mini-festival marked Cohiba’s 55th anniversary in September 2022.

Organizers and trade outlets asked the community to monitor Habanos S.A.’s official channels for updates; for now, no replacement dates have been fixed and distributors continue to manage refunds and customer communications.