OREANDA-NEWS. On 29 January 2009 was announced, that cigarette and Russian-style non-filter cigarettes “papirosy” output in Belarus increased 4.3% on the year in 2008 to 19.499 billion units, according to the National Statistics Committee.

Grodno-based state-run Neman produced 11.75 billion cigarettes, up 4.5% on the year. Privately-owned Tabak-Invest, based in Minsk, accounts for the remaining 7.749 billion cigarettes.

Sales of cigarettes amounted to 19.7 billion units, up 4.1% on the year, including 13.7 billion units by trading companies, up 9.1%.