Baku, Azerbaijan, April 21
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
Iran’s cigarette import witnessed a significant fall by 76 percent in last fiscal eyar, ended March 2018, Ali Asghar Ramzi, head of Iran’s Center for Tobacco Planning and Supervision, said.
Iran imported 3.27 billion cigarettes during the last fiscal year, Ramzi said, the official website of Iran’s Industry Ministry reported.
He added that the huge fall comes after significant domestic production increase in the same span of time.
Iran’s cigarette import was 13.6 billion in the fiscal year to March 2015, which increased to 16.4 billion in the next fiscal year, which ended March 2016, Ramzi said.
About 55 billion cigarettes are smoked in Iran annually. The country’s cigarette output was planned to reach 50 billion by the beginning of the current fiscal year (March 2018).
Over 90 percent of the cigarette smoked in the country is planned to be supplied by domestic producers during the current fiscal year.
The Iranian administration seriously follows a plan to domestically produce foreign cigarette brands in order to cut down their imports.
In recent months, Iranian officials have repeatedly underscored that the administration increased domestic output of cigarettes, decreasing the dependency on imports. Meanwhile, over 80 percent of the tobacco used in Iran’s cigarette factories is supplied through imports.