Ukraine's Interfax news agency quoted data from Kantar Ukraine's latest research report as saying that the share of illegal tobacco products in the Ukrainian market increased from 19.5% in June and 20.2% in February to 25.7% in October.
This figure is the highest share since Kantar began collecting information on the Ukrainian tobacco market.
The proportion of counterfeit products increased to 11.3%, and the proportion of products labeled for duty-free sale or export but illegally sold in Ukraine increased to 12.9%.
On a full-year basis, illicit cigarettes account for 21.8% of the Ukrainian tobacco market.
According to Kantar calculations, the Ukrainian government lost about 23.5 billion Uyals ($625.67 million) in tobacco tax revenue in 2023 due to the illegal cigarette trade.
