[Intl-tobacco] South Korea: Cigarette Exports Grow Sharply in First Half (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

More evidence about the harms of de-monopolization and open trade in
tobacco.

Cigarette Exports Grow Sharply in First Half

Korea Times
16 July 2001

By Park Yoon-bae
Staff Reporter

The nation's export of cigarettes increased tangibly in the first six
months of the year, boosted by active marketing strategies.

The Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corp. (KT&G) said yesterday that shipments of
cigarettes to foreign countries reached 310 million packs during the
January-June period, exceeding last year's total exports of 305 million
packs. One pack contains 20 cigarettes.

``The sharp rise in tobacco shipments was attributed to our aggressive
marketing strategies to increase sales in 30 countries, especially in
Central Asia and the Middle East,'' said a KT&G official.

He said the state-run tobacco monopoly has also developed 20 cigarette
brands specially designed for exports.

He expected that cigarette shipments will rise further as the corporation
makes inroads into China in latter part of the year in accordance with a
memorandum of understanding with the China National Tobacco Corp. (CNTC).

China is the largest cigarette market in the world. Its annual consumption
was estimated at 85 billion packs of cigarettes.

The size of the Chinese market is 17 times as large as the Korean market.

The KT&G set the goal of exporting 550 million packs of cigarettes for
this year.

It plans to increase the shipments to 1.1 billion packs by the end of
2005.

The market share of foreign cigarettes in Korea increased from 8.6 percent
at the end of last year to 15.3 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The government has abolished its monopoly on tobacco production by
revising related regulations, which took effect on July 1.