Introduction:

The year 2020 is of special interest, as many months passed with the presence of the pandemic and quarantine by COVID-19. The confinement led to the emergence of anxiety, depression, stress and fear, generated by the possibility of contracting the disease, with an impact on smoking and other addictions.

Objective:

To characterize the cigarette market in Cuba in 2020.

Methods:

A conventional, observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out. An alternative source of aggregate data of time series was used. The following techniques were used: analysis of secondary information, individual interview to key informants, non-participant observation and experts' criteria by means of the modified Delphi method. The information is provided in frequencies and percentages.

Results:

Per capita consumption in the Cuban population aged 15 years and older was 1,537 cigarettes, a 4.98% increase compared to 2019. The estimated average price of a pack of cigarettes was 11.23 Cuban pesos, with an increase of 2.18%; of every 100 cigarettes sold, 38 were purchased in Cuban convertible pesos and 62 in Cuban pesos. Price inelasticity - demand for cigarettes were maintained with a coefficient of 0.43.

Conclusions:

The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the inherent social and economic factors are presented as the fundamental cause of the increase in demand in the period studied, which breaks the decreasing trend of the last three years; although there was a discreet increase in the average price of the pack of cigarettes, smokers were not sensitive to it.

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