Russia - cigarette sales slow..

August 6, 2009 - Russia’s cigarette market fell by 3-4 per cent during the first half of 2009, according to an Interfax story quoting the managing director of British American Tobacco (BAT) Russia, Kingsley Wheaton.

Wheaton was quoted as saying the market would decline at the same rate until the end of this year and would start to grow only in the second half of 2010.

BAT Russia's share of the cigarette market during the first six months, at 20
percent by volume and 23 percent by value, was down from that of the first half of last year, 22 percent and 24 percent respectively.

In April 2008 Russia's lower chamber of parliament, the Duma (in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament), ratified the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The head of the State Duma healthcare committee said the ratio of smokers and non-smokers in Russia is twice as high as that in Western Europe, and 400-500,000 people die of smoking-related diseases in the country every year. (Russian parliament ratifies anti-smoking global convention)

More - Tobacco in Russia..

Reference: Cigarette sales down in Russia, Tobacco Reporter, 8/6/2009.

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