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Press release…
Tobacco sector aims to maintain the current level in exports…
The tobacco sector, one of Türkiye’s traditional export sectors, focused on maintaining the current level of exports due to the flat course of cigarette consumption worldwide.
Ömer Celal Umur, Chair of the Aegean Tobacco Exporters’ Association, emphasised that cigarette consumption in developed countries decreased gradually, while it remained at the same level or surged slightly in undeveloped and developing countries and that while the percentage of people who smoke decreases every year, the hike in the world population ensures that consumption remains at the same level.
Answering the questions of journalists after the ordinary financial general assembly meeting of the Aegean Tobacco Exporters’ Association for the year 2024, Umur said, “We all know the health hazards of smoking, so there is a tendency to quit smoking even among smokers. Therefore, it is not realistic for us to expect an increase in our tobacco exports in the future, we are trying to maintain the existing exports of 978 million dollars in 2024, this is our general strategy.”
Umur stated that ‘Turkish tobacco is of high quality but expensive’ and continued his words as follows; “For this reason, the production of large-leaved Virginia and Burley tobaccos has increased. 30 million kilos of our 73 million kilos of tobacco production consists of large leaf tobacco. Large-leaved Virginia and Burley tobaccos are only used in the domestic market today. However, since this production has soared from zero to 25-30 million kilos, its quality will gradually increase and it will also contribute to tobacco exports. We have also such an opportunity in front of us.”
Sharing that they expect a spike in tobacco production in the 2025 season, Umur concluded, “In the domestic market, 30 percent of a cigarette produced in the country as of 2025 must be made of tobacco produced in Türkiye. If 80-90 million kilos of tobacco is needed for Türkiye’s domestic market cigarette production, 27 million kilos of processed tobacco is needed for this. This corresponds to 35 million kilos of production. Almost half of tobacco production in the country is now being made for the domestic market. In 2025, we can reach 80 million kilograms of production.”
