While health concerns, corporate lawsuits and government legislation are helping to slowly stub out smoking across the developed world, tobacco companies are looking to developing markets like those of the Middle East and North Africa to stoke their profits higher. Their aspirations are certainly being kept alight across the region with an unhealthy dose of heavy smoking nations providing a ready market. In Syria, for example, 60 percent of the male population are smokers, double the global average. And in Egypt, by far the biggest market in the region, about one-fifth of the population – or 13 million smokers – puff their way through 80 billion cigarettes a year.
Efforts to target the region have evidently been paying off with international tobacco companies reporting great business. Imperial Tobacco, manufacturers of Davidoff, West and other brands, witnessed volumes of its Davidoff smokes rise by around one-third in the Middle East in the last year. Altadis, manufacturers of brands such as Gauloises and Gitanes, saw sales of its blonde cigarettes (which represent three-quarters of the company’s business) rise by 24 per cent in the region in the first-half of 2007.
But while the international brands try to muscle in on the financial windfall of this smoking prevalent region with their luxury brands, local cigarette manufacturers continue to compete, with varying degrees of success, by offering a cheaper alternative. What the latter lack in glamour and luxury, they make up for in affordability and affiliations with national pride.
Cleopatra
Of the more than 80 billion cigarettes smoked by Egyptians in any given year, the vast majority of these belong to one brand. Indeed, while much of the region is developing a taste for luxury brands, in Egypt, the country can’t shake its long-running love affair with its queen: Cleopatra. The brand is the jewel in the crown of Eastern Company (EC), the almost century-old former state-owned now partially privatised company that enjoys a monopoly of the Egyptian market. Since tobacco cultivation is outlawed in Egypt, the company – the only licensed cigarette manufacturer in the country and the largest in the Middle East – imports all of its tobacco for production. The pack’s low-price gives the cigarette its hefty pulling power. Keeping the price stable is key to the brand strategy of serving consumers on a limited income and the poor.
Price 50 cents
Biggest fans More than half of Egypt’s smokers wouldn’t smoke anything else, while even foreign tourists have been known to slip a pack or two in their bags to take back home. Cleopatra’s appeal cuts across generations, too, with all age groups likely to be seen smoking it. Curiously not available at the Duty Free at Cairo International Airport.
Pleasure factor Considering the price, Cleopatra offers up a surprisingly pleasant-tasting, full-flavoured smoke, albeit with uneven filling at times.
Future staying power In the country where pharaohs aspired to eternal life, Cleopatra shows all signs of preserving its powerful rule for a long time yet.
Cedars
When Cedars launched in Lebanon in 1970, says Kamal Adrissi, the technical general secretary of the state-owned Regie du Tabac et Tombacs, it created such a stir that Marlboro’s sales took a large dent. You can’t get more patriotic in Lebanon than a reference to the cedar tree. Strange then, that a cigarette brand should call itself Cedars but brandish a pack design in blue with no relation to its name. The reason, explains Adrissi, is that when it was launched, it was originally going to be called Concorde after the Franco-British headline-grabbing supersonic airplane also launched that decade. At the last minute, the cigarette brand was renamed Cedars by the Ministry of Finance, the government body in charge of signing agreements on such matters. Unfortunately, no one bothered to sign a second agreement to change the pack design – a phenomenon that can be directly attributed to the Ministry’s inaction over signing agreements related to the Regie.
Price 50 cents
Biggest fans Taxi drivers, Lebanon’s immigrant Syrian workers.
Pleasure factor Once referred to by former French hostage Jean-Paul Kauffmann as the “revolting Lebanese cigarettes” that he was given while in captivity during the Civil War, Cedars are definitely an acquired taste. On the plus side, this blend of Burley, Virginia and local Lebanese tobacco enjoys a very good reputation for its quality.
Future staying power A new pack design featuring a cedar is ready and waiting for the Ministry of Finance to give it the go-ahead, although when that might happen remains in question. If Cedars can get its act together and re-launch, it may prove to be as tenacious as its evergreen namesake.
Alhamraa
Sharing its name with one of Damascus’ most famous shopping thoroughfares, Alhamraa is Syria’s most famous locally-produced cigarette and also its most popular. It is produced by the General Organization of Tobacco (GOT), which was founded in 1935 and which has been the state-owned tobacco monopoly for more than the last three decades. By law, all tobacco grown in Syria must be sold to the state, which controls the export and import of this produce. While unlike most cigarette brands the Alhamraa pack doesn’t display what type of blend it is, its character can be compared to that of full flavour blends. Certainly its nicotine levels are on a par with other international full flavour cigarettes, but its higher tar content, in comparison, can go some way toward explaining its strong and distinctive taste.
Price 50 cents
Biggest fans Considered to be a healthy smoke, it's popular with Syrian taxi drivers and construction workers.
Pleasure factor If you like your smokes strong and stripped of any pretence, these could be for you. While the Syrians may love them, these are definitely for the more adventurous smoker.
Future staying power The winds of change are blowing through Syria’s retail sectors, with luxury brands like Gucci moving in to the capital Damascus. On the smoking front though, with plenty of low-income punters to please, Alhamraa isn’t about to run out of puff just yet.
