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Romania's cigarette black market accounted for 7.9 percent of the total consumption in March 2022, relatively in line with January's share of 7.8 percent, shows data released on Monday by Novel Research.
"In March, the black market remained constant nationwide. However, there is a noticeable increase in illicit trade in the country south, which offsets the decline in the phenomenon in the northern and western regions. The most substantial increase in the cigarette black market was in the southeast, with a 5.9 percent surge from January 2022 to 8.4 percent, while in the southern region, smuggling increased 5.2 percentage points to 9.5 percent. Despite seeing a 6.5 percent drop to 19.2 percent, the northeastern region is still the most affected by illegal trade, while in the western and north-western regions, illicit cigarette trading was down 4.8 percent to 5.4 percent, and 4.6 percentage points to 5.8 percent, respectively," Novel Research CEO Marian Marcu said, Agerpres.ro informs.
He explained that by source of the illicit products, non-branded "cheap whites" further account for the largest share, with more than 60 percent of the black market (yet down 1.4 percentage points). The share of tobacco products smuggled from Moldova increased 3.5 percent to 6.9 percent, while Ukraine and Serbia remain at 0.1 and 0 percent respectively.
In 2020, tobacco companies funneled over 17.54 billion RON to the state budget, as the tobacco sector became the biggest contributor to the Romanian state.
