Tobacco Production falls by 20% in Uzbekistan

Tashkent. June 9. Silkroadnews – Tobacco production falls by 20% in Uzbekistan. A subsequent decline from 614 mln packs in 2009 to 498, 4 mln packs in 2013 is observed, as UzTAG informs.
At the same time, tobacco pricesv are on the rise. Tobacco industry contributed 178 bln Uzbek sums to the budget, while tax payments attributed to tobacco industry accounted for 341.5 bln sums in 2013 budget.
As reported earlier, 22% of Uzbek male population are smoking. This is comparable to the countries which are perceived as virtually non-smoking e. g. Iceland (19%) and Luxembourg (22%).
The number of smoking women is also declining in Uzbekistan. It dropped from 5% in 2002 to just 3% in 2013.