According to a Rustabak.ru report, the Belarusian ministry of commerce has raised BAT’s and PM’s quotas for cigarette import by 138 million pieces.

The quotas were revised only in regard to premium tobacco products. Olga Klimanovich, corporate relations manager for British American Tobacco Trading Co, BAT’s Belarusian branch, said earlier this month that BAT which accounted for 55 per cent of the higher-end segment had been granted a quota of 440 million pieces for premium cigarettes for the year 2006, whereas the market demand for these cigarettes was estimated at two billion sticks. The supply, she then warned, was fairly likely to be exhausted in September already. As for the total market need for imported tobacco products, BAT’s experts estimate it at 4.5 to 5 billion sticks per year, but the government had set the overall cigarette import quota at 1.5 billion pieces for the current year. Klimanovich also told the news agency BelaPAN in an interview that due to the restrictions the volume of tobacco smuggling could reach 1.2 billion cigarettes by the end of the year, but admitted that the launch of contract manufacturing at the local cigarette making facilities had reduced cigarette contraband from Russia notably. (vt)