According to Ahram Online, starting from February 17, 2024, Oriental Tobacco Company will increase the price of cigarettes by EGP 2 (USD 0.06) per pack to EGP 8.
The company's most affordable brand, Cleopatra, now retails for EGP 30 instead of EGP 27 per pack (20 cigarettes).
This is the second time the company has raised prices in three months. Over the past year, as the Egyptian pound has depreciated against the U.S. dollar, cigarette prices have increased several times.
Earlier this month, Philip Morris International Egypt raised the prices of traditional cigarette brands, including Marlboro, Merit and L&M, by between EGP 9 and EGP 11 per pack.
Oriental Tobacco Chief Executive Hani Aman insisted in a television interview that the price increase was modest compared with the sharp increase in raw material costs.
The Egyptian Independent quoted him as saying: "We are not a very commercial company, otherwise we would raise prices significantly like other companies, but we look at the problem from a different angle. Cigarettes are a strategic commodity."
Aman said that 95% of the ingredients in cigarettes are imported. For example, he said, the price of cigarette filters has increased by about 400%.
Official figures show that about 18 million of Egypt's nearly 105 million people smoke.
