Tobacco companies have estimated the volume of the illegal cigarette market. Their research has shown that every dozen packs sold in Novosibirsk are counterfeit products. These data were announced on October 27 at the forum "Days of Retail in Siberia".
Most of the counterfeit and unmarked tobacco products come to Russia from Belarus and Kazakhstan. According to experts, the illegal market has grown more than 10 times in seven years. This situation is typical for most subjects of the Russian Federation. The highest proportion of counterfeit goods is in the regions that border these countries. In the Siberian Federal District, the share of illegal products is 10.8%.
"This is not just some general figure, but data concerning every consumer who buys tobacco products," says a representative of JTI Russia (Japan Tobacco International) Ksenia Ivanovskaya. – We conducted a control purchase in Novosibirsk in five retail outlets. And counterfeit products were found everywhere – cigarettes sold under our trademarks, but not produced by our company. Everywhere there is an open layout, prices are below the minimum possible. No one checks the quality of such products. It does not pay money to the budget."
Representatives of the tobacco company reported that such a scheme often becomes possible if the cashier of the outlet decides to earn extra money and changes the original products for counterfeit.
Source:
nsk.bfm.ru