You can’t please everybody

KT&G on Friday reported that its overseas sales of cigarettes last year, at 48.7 billion, were 4.7 percent up on those of 2016, according to a story in The Korea Times.

And the value of last year’s overseas cigarette sales was said to have reached $812 million, which represented the second successive year of a record high.

The rise in sales was attributed to its performance on new markets in Asia, Africa and Central and South America, in addition to that on its main markets in the Middle East and Russia.

Starting in Turkey in 2008, the company has established overseas factories, which now include also those in Iran and Russia. And in 2011 it acquired a tobacco company based in Indonesia.

Its main brand Esse accounts for more than half of total overseas cigarette sales.

Some people say the company is doing a good job in making inroads into new overseas markets amid the strict regulations it has become subject to here.

However, some have taken issue with the company’s pride in its sales in developing countries where government regulations are not as strict as they are in South Korea, claiming this could end up posing health risks to smokers there.

And yet others say KT&G should use its success overseas to lower its prices in South Korea.