OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2011. Cigarette output in Belarus increased 23.1% on the year in January-September 2011 to 22.2 billion units, according to the National Statistics Committee.

In September, cigarette output rose 33.8% on the year to 3 billion units.

Grodno-based state-run Neman produced 17.56 billion cigarettes, up 41% on the year. Privately-owned Tabak-Invest, based in Minsk, accounts for the remaining output.

Sales of cigarettes amounted to 17.9 billion units, up 10% on the year, including 13 billion units sold by retail companies, up 5.9%.

Belarusian-made cigarettes accounted for 95.5% of all sales, up 0.7 percentage points on the year. The share of imported cigarettes in the total sales amounted to 4.5%, down 0.7 percentage points.

Cigarette prices rose 39% in January-September 2011; in September 2011, prices increased 120% on the year and 30.8% on the month.