Pointing up Greece’s growing illicit trade

Imperial Tobacco has joined forces with other major tobacco companies in Greece in presenting a public awareness campaign about the growing problem of illicit trade.

“This cross-industry initiative is being highlighted with adverts in national newspapers and on radio, as well as online and with 500,000 leaflets,” according to a note posted on Imperial’s website.

“The ‘Say No to Illicit Tobacco Products’ campaign is aimed at trade partners and consumers and has the backing of the Greek government and law enforcement agencies.”

Rebecca Karapanagiotidou, HR manager SE Europe and CORA manager Greece, said that one of the priorities was to make as many people as possible aware of the adverse effects of illicit trade.

“This campaign builds on our ongoing engagement activities to gain support in jointly tackling the significant growth we’ve seen in illegal tobacco products,” she said.

Imperial said that the illicit trade currently accounted for about 21 percent of the cigarettes and about 12 percent of the fine-cut smoked in Greece.