The largest of the local manufacturers, Donskoy Tabak, which moved production to a new site in a Rostov-on-Don industrial estate last year, made 17.1 billion cigarettes over the last twelve months, 8.1 per cent up from the year before, and launched a number of new brands in co-operation with foreign businesses.
Pogar cigar and cigarette plant produced 11.1 billion cigarettes, just 2.5 per cent up from the year 2005. St-Petersburg-based Nevo-Tabak posted 8.3 per cent yearly growth and manufactured 7.6 billion cigarettes. The plant also started its technical up-grading programme last year. Three new brands were launched, partly by way of a joint project with an US-registered company.
The Baltic (Baltiyskaya) tobacco factory located in Kaliningrad showed a 12.5 per cent growth, highest among local manufacturers, by making 7.2 billion sticks. None of the other locally invested tobacco makers can boast any success, and two of them, Alvis and Astra, both of the Ural region, were shut down last year. Biysk tobacco plant in southern Siberia also ceased operations as of 1 January. (vt)