Havana, June 4 (RHC-XINHUA) -- Cuba exported 64.7 million machine-made cigars from January to May 2014, generating nearly 10 million U.S. dollars in revenue.

According to Vladimir Rodriguez Gonzalez, president of the state-owned Internacional Cubana de Tabacos S.C. (ICT), the only company manufacturing cigars on the island with mechanized equipment, the cigars are exported to many countries, including Spain, France, Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Greece, Canada, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and some parts of Africa and the Middle East.

Cuba is better known for its handmade cigars, but ICT manufactures machine-made versions of the island's famed Cohiba, Partagas, Romeo and Juliet, and Montecristo brands, among others.

Tobacco is Cuba's fourth biggest source of foreign revenue, after the export of medical services, tourism and nickel, bringing in more than 400 million dollars a year, and as many as 150,000 Cubans are employed in growing the aromatic tobacco leaf.

Figures provided by the joint-venture Cubatabaco S.C., the company that markets Cuban cigars worldwide, indicate that each year more than 100 million cigars are made in Cuba and sold abroad.