Baltic States – CIS, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Transport

Considerable changes have been recorded in Latvian cities. There was a steep rise in illegal cigarettes in Latvia’s central Cesis town – by 17.4%age points, compared to the respective period in 2015. Cesis currently shows almost 35% illegal cigarettes market, while the earlier leader cities Daugavpils, Livani, Ludza, Ventspils demonstrated a considerable decline in consumption of contraband cigarettes.

Still, more than two thirds or 68.9% of contraband cigarettes come from Belarus where cigarettes cost 4.5 times less than in Latvia. If these cigarettes were legally sold in Latvia, the budget revenues from sales would be EUR 41.6 million.

At the same time, 15.3% of illegal cigarettes come from Russia, and 8.4% have been counterfeit cigarettes of unknown origin.

The latest "empty pack survey" results suggest that the share of illegal cigarettes in Latvia keeps declining, still Latvia is in the first place in the Baltics and the EU in the share of contraband cigarettes.

The study by Nielsen is based on examination of discarded cigarette packs that were picked up in public places in April 2016 in 25 largest towns in Latvia, accounting for 60.3% of total population.

As reported, in the fourth quarter of last year contraband cigarettes in Latvia accounted for 24.8% of the market, which was the lowest indicator in the past six years. The share of illegal cigarettes in Latvia has been cut almost by half from 2010 when it reached 44.6%.