Following BAT and JTI that are already making some of their brands with the local cigarette makers Neman and Tabak-Invest, Philip Morris is reportedly negotiating license manufacturing with the tobacco plant Neman (Grodno).

To this effect, PM is viewing an option of installing its own machines on the Neman production floor, the plant’s general director Yuri Chernyshov informed. Placing licensed manufacturing of international cigarette brands at Belarusian facilities has been evoked by the government’s strategy of replacement of the cigarette import, with the quota for import cut dramatically this year and kept at the same low level for the next year as well. Thus, BAT has completed an agreement on producing Alliance in Grodno, whereas JTI is planning to start making Winston at the Tabak-Invest facility located in Minsk, in addition to Magna and Monte Carlo that are already in production. At the same time, despite the current quota having been repeatedly revised by the government, the market is facing considerable deficit, with tobacco riots looming large, as the local press points out.