Retail volume sales of cigarettes in Ethiopia continued to expand at a robust pace in 2024, but the liberalisation of the foreign exchange rate in July 2024 effectively doubled raw material import costs, contributing to a sharp increase in cigarette prices. Pipe tobacco remains prevalent in rural areas, while illegally smuggled tobacco for use in shisha and hookah pipes is widely consumed by young adults, with e-vapour products also growing in popularity among this group.
The tobacco industry in Ethiopia is heavily dominated by cigarettes.
There has been a shift towards illicit products in the Ethiopian market, which has negatively impacted the sales of locally produced cigarettes by Japan Tobacco International (JTI). This impact has been particularly pronounced in the east of the country, where licit offerings have largely been overtaken by illicit imports. This is mainly due to the significant price difference between illicit and locally produced products, as well as low customer awareness regarding the difference between them. Illicit cigarettes are widely sold by small local grocers.
There is only one company that is engaged in tobacco production, National Tobacco Enterprise (NTE). NTE is now majority owned by Japan Tobacco International (JTI). It produces four brands of Cigarettes, which are Nyala, Nyala Premium, Winston, and LD. Nyala is the most popular cigarette sold by NTE, followed by Nyala Premium and Winston.
The distribution of cigarettes continues to be dominated by small local grocers, but both supermarkets and hospitality (on-trade) are growing in importance, in spite of the fact that most supermarkets do not stock cigarettes.
Retail volume sales of cigarettes will expand at a slightly slower pace in the forecast period than in the review period.
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Data and analysis in this report provides further detailed coverage dedicated to the following key categories, where applicable:
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Tobacco
Passport Tobacco covers the seven major tobacco categories: Cigarettes, Cigars & Cigarillos, Smoking tobacco (made up of Pipe tobacco and RYO tobacco), Smokeless Tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco), E-Vapour Products (closed and open); Heated Tobacco; and Tobacco Free Oral Nicotine. Smoking paraphernalia such as pipes, rolling papers, lighters or matches, etc., are not included, nor are nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, which are part of Euromonitor's Passport Consumer Healthcare database.
See all of our definitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Tobacco research and analysis database.
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