The number of legal tobacco sales outlets in 2024 increased by 30% year-on-year to 414,000, Maxim Kurgansky, Director of Legal Product Protection at the CRPT, said at a press conference following the results of the VII All-Russian study of the illegal tobacco market in Russia.
"The number of retail outlets selling tobacco products has increased by a total of 30%. If at the end of 2023 there were 321 thousand of them, then at the end of 2024 we recorded more than 414 thousand," said Kurgansky.
He noted that today 104.8 thousand companies operate in the tobacco market in the Russian Federation, and a fifth of them started operations only in 2024.
The increase in the number of legal outlets has led to an increase in cigarette sales. And it has grown most noticeably in those federal districts where the share of illegal trade has decreased the most.
"Thus, in the Northwestern Federal District, the level of illegal tobacco trade decreased from 14.1% in the second quarter of 2024 to 11% in the third and fourth quarters, and cigarette sales increased by 6% over the year. In the Central Federal District, the share of illegal trade decreased from 14.1% to 12%, while sales increased by 7.8%. In the Southern Federal District, the level of illicit trafficking decreased from 17.1% to 15.8%, while sales increased by 12.3%. In the Siberian District, illicit trafficking decreased from 8% to 6.4%, and sales increased by 12.6%," Kurgansky said.
The expert recalled that on December 1, 2023, the introduction of labeling for the last group of tobacco products, nicotine-containing liquids, was completed. This allowed us to take control of the entire tobacco market. "In the second half of 2024, law enforcement officers identified 5 illegal nicotine-containing products. In total, more than 670,000 units worth more than 500 million rubles were seized from ready-to-sell unmarked products," he added.
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