The Iranian Tobacco Company (ITC) has extensive plans to boost output for cigarettes, shows a report, as demand for local brands surge amid lower imports and tighter controls on smuggling.
In a Monday report, the ISNA news agency cited figures by the ITC showing that output in factories operated by the company in five Iranian provinces would increase by 200 percent at the end of the current calendar year ending March 2021.
The report said that a new cigarette production line that has been idle for three years in the capital Tehran would resume operations soon, allowing the ITC to further boost output.
It said another idle cigarette factory located in the central Iranian province of Isfahan went on line in early July with production currently reaching 200,000 packs of 20 each day.
ITC factories had produced a total of 120 million packs of 20 of cigarettes in the four-month period ending July 21, said the report, adding that sales had surged by 37 and 40 percent in volume and value terms, respectively, compared to the same period last year.
The increased output comes as smokers in Iran have developed a preference for local brands amid lower imports and heavier taxation and controls on trafficking of foreign brands.
Outside Tehran, the ITC operates plants in Gilan, Mazandaran, Golestan and West Azerbaijan, all provinces with sizable tobacco farming.
The government-owned company, founded in 1937, has 5,000 staff members and works with 6,000 tobacco farmers in Iran.
A senior ITC official said in June that the company is capable of supplying at least half of the local demand for cigarettes, which is nearly 4 billion packs of 20 per year, according to figures provided by the government.