Tobacco, Sugar, and Nickel
While Cubans are proud of their country for a myriad of reasons, the thing that makes them the happiest is knowing that other countries are willing to pay to get their hands on Cuban cigars. Cuban cigars became popular right when they could no longer be legally sold in the US, and since then, smugglers have been trying to profit from the embargo.
But did you know that Cuba is known for other natural resources? The island country exports sugar and nickel. There’s an estimated 5 million tons of the valuable metal in Cuban mines, making it the fifth country with the highest nickel reserves.