Compound processes go in the tobacco market of Azerbaijan on the background of a general process of forced transparency at customs, which began in 2015 after the fall of the prices of oil and certain economic transformations.
In the domestic market cigarettes are available at twice the price than before the devaluation of the national currency. That is, the importers have not abandoned the usual profitability level, charging the consumers with inflation. At the same time, Azerbaijan Customs average import price of cigarettes fell in 2016 from 49.8 cents per pack (2015) to 31.5 cents, or 36.8%.
According to the State Customs Committee, in 2016 the official costs of importers for the supply of cigarettes were $ 146,900,000, approximately $ 111 million less than in 2015.
The official importers of cigarettes in Azerbaijan are AMD Trade, Imeks, Crocus Ltd., and more recently, LLC Aksin-N. It is noteworthy that these companies provide to the State Committee for Standardization, Metrology and Patents clearly underestimated plans of purchases of cigarettes abroad.
There are still no data on the volumes in January this year. We only know the total index of import of tobacco and tobacco products - 7.4 million, 2 million more than in the comparable period of 2016. This is most probably mainly processed tobacco, the production of which last year increased by expanding the tobacco field areas. -----08B
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