Philip Morris International (PMI) will invest PHP 8.8 billion (USD 159.7 million) to start making smokeless heated tobacco sticks in the Philippines, Nikkei Asia reported.
Commercial production is expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023 at PMFTC, the U.S. tobacco group’s local joint venture with billionaire Lucio Tan’s conglomerate LT Group. PMFTC brought IQOS to the Philippines in 2020.
This will be the first time PMI will produce heated tobacco sticks in the Philippines. Production will take place at an existing cigarette factory in Batangas province on Luzon island, the report said.
According to PMI, the investment will create 220 jobs and use Philippine-grown tobacco. It is estimated that more than 20 per cent of adults in the Philippines smoke.