South Korea’s state-owned tobacco manufacturer, Korea Tobacco and Ginseng Corporation (KT&G), will deliver $196 million worth of cigarettes to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the year 2003. The 1.4-billion pack contract, signed with the Dubai–based Al-Wali Trading Company, is double last year’s order.
The seventh largest tobacco-consuming nation in the world, the UAE sees the number of smokers in the country rising at an annual average of two percent. Emiratis smoke up to four billion cigarettes a per annum. Establish over a century ago, KT&G is a state-owned monopoly dealing in tobacco and red ginseng products. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
