Tag: Iranian Tobacco Co.

  • Iranian Tobacco Co. to Build in Zimbabwe

    Iranian Tobacco Co. to Build in Zimbabwe

    Photo: www.akolosov.art

    The Iranian Tobacco Co. (ITC) will build a cigarette factory in Zimbabwe, reports Press TV.

    According to local media reports, ITC CEO Mohammad Sheikhan and Zimbabwe’s agriculture minister, Anxious Jongwe Masuka, signed an agreement in Harare on Jan. 26.

    The facility will manufacture ITC’s Bahman brand using Zimbabwean leaf tobacco. As part of the agreement, Zimbabwe will also supply tobacco for cigarette manufacturing in Iran or for re-exports to Central Asia.

    Other Iranian-made cigarette brands will be exported to Zimbabwe under the deal.

    Iran’s tobacco sector has grown in recent years amid lower imports of international brands and increasing demand for local products.

    The boom has enabled the ITC to revive idle plants and to start exporting to several countries in West and Central Asia.

    The company’s planned cigarette factory dovetails with Zimbabwe’s ambition to move up the tobacco value chain. While the country exports hundreds of millions of kg of leaf each year, most of the value is captured by the buyers who process the tobacco into consumer products.

    The country aims to generate US$5 billion from tobacco by 2025, up from US$1 billion today.

  • Iranian Tobacco Mulls Investment in Zimbabwe

    Iranian Tobacco Mulls Investment in Zimbabwe

    Photo: Taco Tuinstra

    The Iranian Tobacco Co. wants to invest in Zimbabwe to reduce the cost associated with buying tobacco through middlemen, reports The Sunday Mail. Among the areas the Iranians are targeting are irrigation, curing and mechanization. They also want to contract with farmers and set up factories in Zimbabwe. 

    The investments were discussed during a visit to Tehran by a delegation led by Zimbabwe First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa.

    “We get our needs through agents, and prices go higher for us and also causing Zimbabwean farmers to have little profit,” said Iran’s vice president of commerce and economy, Hamid Gharesheikh, during the meeting.

    “We want to get companies to work with directly in Zimbabwe and do away with middlemen. We are under sanctions, and it’s difficult for us to import from other Western countries, but with Zimbabwe, we have a better understanding and for that, our cooperation will be helpful to both of us. We can also supply you with equipment such as tractors and implements for production. We can also supply dryers for curing and processing,” he said. 

    The proposed cooperation dovetails with Mnangagwa’s passion to economically empower Zimbabwe’s citizenry, especially women and youths, in the effort to attain upper middle-income status for the country by 2030. 

    During the meeting, Gharesheikh said Iran would prioritize women in its investments.

  • Foreign Firms Dominate Iranian Cigarette Market

    Foreign Firms Dominate Iranian Cigarette Market

    Photo: Emanuele Mazzoni

    Despite recent gains by Iranian Tobacco Co. (ITC), multinationals continue to dominate the Iranian cigarette market, according to a report by PressTV, citing ITC CEO Siavash Afzali.   

    Speaking at a press briefing on May 17, Afzali said that Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and British American Tobacco (BAT) control more than 61 percent of sales and some 70 percent of the value of the cigarette market in Iran. Afzali estimated that JTI and BAT supplied 46 billion cigarettes to Iranian consumers in the calendar year to late March.

    Afzali said ITC’s share of the market was around 9 billion over the same period against an estimated supply of 20 billion cigarettes that entered the market by traffickers.

    In the year to March, ITC increased its cigarettes sales in Iran by 50 percent. Its output and market share increased by 23 percent and 70 percent, respectively, over the same period.

    However, the company is responsible for only 5 percent of the value of the cigarettes sold in Iran, a market that is believed to be worth around IRR400 trillion ($1.74 billion).

    Afzali said that ITC could triple its output to 25 billion cigarettes per year, although he insisted that existing laws favor local manufacturing by foreign brands.

    “Foreign companies easily import raw material and control the market,” he said. But ITC generates more local employment than the multinationals, Afzali insisted. Including farmers, ITC employs 12,000 people—far more than JTI and BAT, according to the CEO.