BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 5
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Georgia has imported 3.005 billion cigarettes, worth $43.32 million from January through August 2020, Trend reports via the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).
The number was 4.60 million, worth $58.67 million during the same period of the previous year. The year-on-year comparison has shown over a 35 percent reduction in imports.
According to Geostat, with 2.18 billion imported cigarettes Ukraine is the leading exporter of cigarettes to Georgia during 2020. It is followed by Uzbekistan - 104.5 million, Russia - 62.9 million, and Serbia - 53.5 million.
The total number of imports stood at 7.48 billion cigarettes, worth $104.71 million during 2019. The main importers of cigarettes to Georgia during the current year were: Ltd Elizi Group, BAT Georgia Limited Representative Office in Tbilisi, Georgia, LLC Philip Morris Georgia, JTI Caucasus, and LLC International Marketing & Trading.
The Georgian tobacco market has been impacted much by COVID-19. During the lockdown, all non-essential retailers were forced to close to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, the cigarette sales reduction cannot be linked only to the global pandemic. Overall tobacco sales continued to decline in 2019 pre-COVID-19.
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