Baku, Azerbaijan, May 1
By Fakhri Vakilov – Trend:
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) opened the 3rd third production line at a factory of excisable goods of a Japanese manufacturer in Uzbekistan, Tashkent Tobacco, Trend reports via Uzbek media.
The new line will allow Tashkent Tobacco to supply products not only to the Uzbek market, but also for export.
The new line will produce products of world famous brands, including ultra-modern capsule technology, which will significantly expand the range of products for consumers in the domestic market and naturally lead to a decrease in smuggling and an increase in tax revenues to the budget.
The share of this category in the Uzbek market has already reached 15 percent this year and continues to grow actively.
The volume of the tobacco market in Uzbekistan is estimated at 10 billion cigarettes, or about $500 million per year.
On average, a pack of cigarettes in Uzbekistan today costs 8,313 soums (about $1). The main share of the market falls on the products of the low-price (7,500 soums or $0.88) and mid-price (up to 11,000 soums or $1.3) segment. Premium products - at a price of 11,000 soums - are preferred by no more than 3 percent of consumers.
The average smoker smokes 10 cigarettes per day, which is less than in neighboring Kazakhstan, where the figure is 16 cigarettes per day. Moreover, the main consumers of tobacco products (70 percent) in Uzbekistan are citizens aged from 25 to 54 years.
Tashkent Tobacco Factory was opened in 2015. In 2017, JTI provided the Uzbek company with equipment and rights to produce cigarettes of Winston and LD trademarks.
The company controls a little more than 10 percent of the domestic market for tobacco products. The total investment in the company amounted to $40 million.
Last year, Tashkent Tobacco replenished the budget of the country in the amount of over 100 billion soums (approximately $ 12 billion) in taxes and other payments. More than 100 jobs were created in the factory and more than 200 in distribution in the regions of the country.
Last summer, it was reported that Uzbekistan, after a ten-year hiatus, resumed the export of cigarettes. The company UzBAT, the main shareholder of which is British American Tobacco Uzbekistan (BAT), has begun the delivery of products to Kyrgyzstan. Later, UzBAT began to export tobacco products to Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
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