Azerbaijan to up production

Tabaterra CJSC, which started up in Azerbaijan on September 11, is expected to produce seven billion cigarettes a year, according to an AzerNews story.

Tabaterra’s plant, on the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park (SCIP), is slated to employ 200 people and to manufacture three types of tobacco products.

AzerNews reported that 1.6 billion of the 10 billion cigarettes consumed each year in Azerbaijan by the 47 percent of the population that smokes were manufactured in the country, and that the bill for importing the rest was US$150 million annually.

Given this situation, Azerbaijan had decided to increase tobacco production.

The government was aiming to increase the area dedicated to growing leaf tobacco from 3,200 ha to 6,000 ha, and to increase cigarette production by raising the capacity of existing cigarette factories and establishing new ones.

These initiatives were expected to increase Azerbaijan’s cigarette production capacity from 16-17 percent of domestic consumption to 70 percent.

The SCIP was established by presidential decree in December 2011 with the aim of accelerating economic development in Azerbaijan and increasing its competitiveness with other countries.

Companies operating from within the SCIP are exempted from property, land, and corporate income taxes, and from VAT on imported equipment.