04 June 2004 12:41
Pros and cons of entering the Russian market
For analysts, the main problem with Franco-Spanish firm Altadis acquiring a Russian company is that, despite Russia
being the fourth-largest cigarette market in the world, there is an oversupply of cigarettes in that market, with supply
exceeding demand by more than 20 per cent. This problem is further compounded by forecasts of falls in the Russian
population of about half a million people per year for the next decade, and an increasing awareness of the risks of
smoking.
However, Russian smokers and manufacturers encounter much fewer restrictions than their counterparts in the US and
the European Union. Russian manufacturers, for example, are not obliged to carry health warnings on their products.
Original article by Javier Romera
Abstracted from Expansion
[Expansion] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
