Romanians have smoked 4.41 billion smuggled cigarettes in 2016, according to a KPMG study for the British think-tank Royal United Services Institute.

The number accounts for 10% of the 48 billion smuggled cigarettes smoked throughout the European Union.

Volume wise, Romania is 6th in the EU on smuggled cigarette consumption, after France at 8.96 billion, Poland at 6.16 billion, UK at 5.55 billion, Germany at 4.8 billion, and Italy at 4.43 billion.

The local smuggled market is the largest of the six countries when compared to the total cigarette consumption, at 16.4%. It is followed by those of Poland (15%), France (14.8%), UK (14.3%), Italy (5.8%) and Germany (5.2%).

Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova are the main countries supplying smuggled cigarettes to Romania. Around 60% of the smuggled cigarettes arriving in the country are the “illicit whites,” meaning cigarettes for which the origin country could not be traced.

The same study showed that the local black market is over the EU average of 9% because Romania has 2,000 km long borders with countries where cigarettes cost a third of the local price, and because of the easy access to smuggled products.

editor@romania-insider.com