Market share of foreign cigarettes highest ever

The number of people smoking foreign cigarettes is sharply increasing.

The market share of imported cigarettes soared to 18.4 percent in January, and continued to rally to 15.0 percent in February, according to the Ministry of Finance and Economy and the Korea Tobacco and Ginseng.

In particular, the market share in January was the highest ever by a monthly standard since the import of foreign brands was allowed in 1986.

The imported cigarettes` share topped 11.2 percent in 1997 and suffered a sharp drop to 4.9 percent in 1998 shortly after the currency crisis erupted in late 1997, and then rose to 6.5 percent in 1999 and 9.4 percent last year.

A ministry official partly attributed the sharp increase in the foreign cigarettes` market share in January and February to the mass purchase of imported brands by merchants who were preparing for the local cigarettes price hike at the end of last year. However, he observed that their market share is expected to rise much higher than the level before the currency crisis in late 1997.

Kwon Soon-Hwal shkwon@donga.com