In the nearest five years every third pack of cigarettes produced in Rostov should be sold in countries of the far abroad.

Disruption of Russian tobacco market and problems on such export markets as Trans-Dniester and Ukraine gave rise to expansion of company’s export line. According to Sergey Romanov, head of tobacco business-complex of «Agrocom Group», in 2012-2013 company exported up to 20% of the total volume of production, but mainly to the countries of Former Soviet Union- Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Moldavia. «In 2013 4,2 billionout of 6,7 billion exported cigarettes were sold to the countries of FSU.»- says Sergey Romanov.

Due to political situation in Ukraine «Donskoy tabak» had to reverse its export policy. Sales reduced by 4% to 32 billion cigarettes last year. «Ukraine shut off supplies of our production to Trans-Dniester, and our export to Ukraine significantly decreased,- says Sergey Romanov.- That is why our export department works on searching of new markets for our company, including far abroad countries».

Development on Russia market is complicated by a number of factors: «It is not easy to grow on Russian market: sales in Russia are adversely affected by growths of an excise rate for tobacco products. Besides the volume of illegal and fake products increases, this also has negative effect on legal manufacturers of tobacco goods. »

Company’s strategic objective is to increase the volume of export sales up to 30% of total volume of production in the nearest 5 years. Specialists of «Donskoy tabak» consider that markets of Ukraine and Trans-Dniester will be replaced by markets of Middle East and South-Eastern Asia. Entry to competitive European markets was facilitated by the purchase of small Greek tobacco company «Sekap», located in Xanthi, Greece. The company produced 1,6 billion cigarettes for «Donskoy tabak» in 2014.