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Turkey is biggest exporter of cigarettes to Iran

Business Materials 6 May 2014 13:22 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 6

By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Turkey is the biggest exporter of cigarettes to Iran, accounting for 66 percent of exports to the country.

Iran totally imported over 556 tons of cigarettes, worth $4.7 million, in the first Iranian solar month, which ended on April 20, Iran's ISNA news agency reported on May 6, citing the latest report released by the Iranian Customs Administration.

Imports of cigarettes rose by 82.2 percent in weight and 108.9 percent in value compared to the same month last year.

Statistics show that 45 percent of cigarettes in the Iranian market have been imported illegally.

Iran produced 19.011 billion cigarettes in the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, Managing Director of the Iranian Tobacco Company Masoum Najafian said, the country's Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper reported on March 19.

The figure indicates a 14.93 percent increase compared to Iran's cigarette production in the Iranian year ended in March 2013.

The company sold $280.8 million worth of cigarettes during the past Iranian year which showed a rise by 32 percent compared to the preceding year.

Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Russia were the main exporters of cigarettes to Iran. Ankara and Abu Dhabi alone accounts for 82 percent of Tehran's total cigarette imports.

Domestic companies supply only half the country's cigarette consumption, Najafian said, noting that Iranians annually pay $1.63 billion for cigarettes.

According to official figures, 63.8 million cigarettes were smoked in Iran last year.

Edited by C.N.

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