Tag: Egypt

  • Eastern Studies E-cigs as Smoking Alternatives

    Eastern Studies E-cigs as Smoking Alternatives

    Photo: Lorendiz Gonzalez from Pixabay

    Eastern Co. is studying electronic cigarettes as an alternative to traditional combustible products, reports Egypt Today.

    In a statement to the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), Eastern Co. said it is consulting with manufacturers of electronic cigarettes in preparation for putting them on the market after obtaining the necessary licenses.

    The move is in line with the company’s strategy to expand and diversify its products.  

    Earlier in March, Eastern Co. announced that it is studying several new investment projects that will enhance its position in the field of smoking and tobacco alternatives.

    Eastern Co. operates within the food, beverage and tobacco sectors. It was established in July 1920 and currently holds a monopoly in the domestic tobacco market.

    Egypt has invited tobacco companies to bid for a license to manufacture cigarettes in the country, a move that could reduce Eastern Co.’s dominance of the local market.

  • Egypt Asked to Broaden Manufacturing Bid

    Egypt Asked to Broaden Manufacturing Bid

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Nakhla Tobacco Co., Imperial Tobacco, British American Tobacco and Al-Mansour International Co. have asked Egypt to broaden the conditions of a prospective license to manufacture cigarettes in the country, reports Reuters.

    Egypt has invited tobacco companies to bid for a license to manufacture cigarettes in the country, which has been dominated for decades by the Eastern Co. state monopoly. The winning bid must include a plan to begin production within three years and at a rate of at least 15 billion cigarettes per year.

    The companies that were invited to bid said the license’s conditions were too narrow and asked the prime minister to halt the bid round until they could be made fairer.

    The bid deadline has been set for April 4, with the auction to be held on June 6.

    The cigarette industry contributes more than EGP60 billion Egyptian ($3.8 billion) to government coffers yearly, according to the state Industrial Development Authority.

     

  • Egypt Raises Cigarette Prices

    Egypt Raises Cigarette Prices

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Egypt plans to increase cigarettes prices by EGP0.25 per pack in July 2021, reports The Daily News.

    The proceeds of the increase will contribute to funding for the Universal Healthcare Insurance program. When the program was launched in July 2018, the government increased cigarette prices by EGP0.75 per pack to raise funding.

    Under the program’s regulations, an additional EGP0.25 per pack will be added every three years until the total tax reaches EGP1.50/ per pack.

    Domestic market leader Eastern Co. said it expects the rises to be enforced as per schedule.

    The company is expected deliver a strong performance in fiscal year 2020-2021, on the back of higher production capacity and utilization rates. The company recently upgraded its production facilities, increasing the production capacity from 200 million cigarettes per day to 250 million cigarettes per day.

    Eastern’s performance is further boosted by the reduction in the retailer’s margin on cigarettes through indirect price increases, from EGP0.10 per pack to EGP 0.025 per pack in December 2020.

    The appreciation of the Egyptian pound will likely also enhance Eastern’s performance as it relies entirely on imports for raw tobacco, which make up more than 80 percent of raw materials.

  • Egypt to Monitor Tobacco Industry

    Egypt to Monitor Tobacco Industry

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    Egypt has created an observatory to monitor tobacco companies—the first of its kind in the Middle East, reports Al-Monitor. Among other things, the observatory will keep track of the industry’s promotional spending and interactions with the scientific community.

    Critics have accused the tobacco industry of paying scientists to claim that smoking protects against Covid-19.  

    A 2019 study by the Cairo Center for Economic Studies and Alastaratejah showed that Egypt was among the top 10 countries in terms of tobacco consumption. According to the statistics, Egyptians consumed 83 billion cigarettes worth EGP73 billion ($4.6 billion) in 2017-2018. During the same period, consumption of hookah tobacco reached 50,000 tons, or EGP3 billion.

    Tobacco, alcohol and drugs account for a quarter of Egyptian households’ spending, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. An estimated 171,000 Egyptians die annually due to smoking-related diseases.

    Through its stake in Eastern Co., The Egyptian government is the largest operator in the domestic tobacco industry.

  • Licensing shisha in Egypt

    Licensing shisha in Egypt

    Amendments made to Egypt’s public-shops law will require restaurants and cafés to obtain licenses to serve shisha, according to a Daily News Egypt story.

    The amendments were passed by Parliament on Monday after two hours of discussions.

    Article 26 of the law now stipulates that premises that serve food or drinks to the public will be able to offer shisha only if they obtain an EG£10,000 license.

    And article 27 requires all such premises to install internal and external surveillance cameras.

    According to the News, a recent study found that 81 percent of shisha smokers were spending about 10 percent of their incomes on daily shisha consumption.

    Additionally, the majority of people frequenting restaurants and cafés were found to be smoking shisha.

    Reportedly, the revenues of these businesses are mostly gained from shisha, which is always in high demand from both men and women.

  • Smoking a male preserve

    Smoking a male preserve

    A joint survey by Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population and the World Health Organization has found that 22.8 percent of Egyptians are consumers of tobacco in various forms, according to an Asharq Al-Awsat story.
    Among men, the figure is 43.6 percent, while among women it is 0.5 percent.
    Dr. Doaa Al-Saleh, co-ordinator of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), seemed to suggest that the figure for smoking among women was an underestimate due to the methodology of the survey. The researchers had visited people in their homes where, in the presence of a husband, father or brother, a woman was most likely to deny smoking whether she did or did not.
    Saleh said that in the future researchers hoped to conduct interviews with women in places such as universities and clubs, where they were more likely to give the correct answers.

  • Eastern shares to be sold

    Eastern shares to be sold

    Egypt on Tuesday became the latest country to sign up to the idea that the way ahead is to sell off the family silver.
    According to a Reuters story citing a cabinet statement, the country announced the names of the first five state companies whose shares would be offered on the Cairo exchange: the Alexandria Mineral Oils Company, Eastern Tobacco, Alexandria Container and Cargo Handling, Abou Kir Fertilizers, and Heliopolis Housing.
    The cabinet statement did not specify the exact timing of the share offerings or the size of the stakes to be offered, but the government has said previously that the stakes would range from 15-30 percent and would be offered in the coming months.
    Egypt earlier this year said it planned to offer stakes in a total of 23 state companies to raise E£80 billion ($4.5 billion) during the next two-and-a-half years.

  • Eastern’s production up

    Eastern’s production up

    Egypt’s Eastern Company said yesterday that it had produced 83 billion cigarettes during the 2016-17 fiscal year (July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017), up from 80 billion during the previous year, according to an Ahram Online story citing the Al-Ahram Arabic news website.
    In a filing to the Egyptian stock Market, the company said that the value of its sales on the local market had been EG£36.7 billion during 2016-17, up from EG£ 28.5 billion during the previous year.
    Exports, meanwhile, were worth EG£103.5 billion in 2016-17, up from EG£66.6 billion during 2015-16.
    In January 2016, the US dollar was valued at about EG£8, while in January 2017 it was valued at EG£18 following the Egyptian government’s decision to devalue the currency.
    Eastern said it had produced 16,800 tons of shisha tobacco during 2016-17, down from 17,600 tons during the previous year.
    About 20.2 percent of Egyptians over the age of 15 are smokers, according to figures for 2016 released by the state-run statistics agency CAPMAS. So of Egypt’s population of 93 million, an estimated 12.6 million people are smokers.
    About 23.8 percent of people aged 25 to 44 are smokers.
    The average annual spend on smoking for households where all members smoke is EG£3,968.

  • Eastern signs deal with BAT

    Eastern Co.has signed a five-year cooperation agreement with British American Tobacco, reports Tegaranet.

    Under the deal, Eastern will produce Viceroy cigarettes in Egypt, while BAT will carry out the marketing and distribution.

    The deal is effective from 2014 through 2019.