Belarus - Absolute Leader In Smuggling ‘White Cigarettes’

The Minsk brand is in the top.

This is stated in the latest report on cigarette consumption in Europe, prepared by the KPMG consulting company at the request of the Philip Morris International Corporation.

According to KPMG estimates, due to the tightening of restrictions at the border and closing a number of checkpoints, the inflow of illegal cigarettes from Belarus has fallen for the third year in a row: by 0.5 billion in 2023, after a decrease of 0.3 billion in 2022 and 1 billion - in 2021. Their place is taken by other countries, primarily Turkey and Algeria, writes Office Life.

At the same time, the volume of illegal supplies from Belarus to European countries has decreased from 2.1 billion to 1.5 billion cigarettes over the year, while their share in the shadow market fell from 4.3% to 2.9%. However, our country remains the absolute leader in the supply of illegal ‘white’ cigarettes, i.e. those sold under their own brands, to European countries, although its share also decreased over the year - from 52 to 43%, and in absolute terms - from 1.9 billion to 1.5 billion cigarettes. At the same time, the brand ‘Minsk’ is invariably among the five most popular brands of illegal ‘white’.

The most popular western destination of tobacco smuggling from Belarus is Poland. Last year, 0.74 billion illegal Belarusian cigarettes got there, which is almost 17% less than in 2022, and almost half as much as in 2020. The supply of illegal cigarettes from Belarus to Lithuania fell by 15.2% to 0.39 billion pieces, while in Latvia - by 27.35%, to 0.16 billion. Partially these losses were compensated by the growth of illegal supplies to Estonia - from 0.05 billion to 0.08 billion cigarettes.

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