Iran has 12 million smokers: official

The head of Iran's Tobacco Company says there are 12 million cigarette smokers across the country bringing tobacco turnover to $3 billion.

“Iranians' consumption of cigarettes has been recorded as 61.2 billion cigarettes per year. The numbers shows a 1.2 percent increase compared to the figures of last year,” Mahmoud Abtahi told Mehr News Agency.

Iran's Tobacco Company's latest figure shows tobacco turnover reached 3 billion dollars.

“Around 30 percent of the turnover is authorized by the Iran's Tobacco Company and the rest is carried out by smugglers and foreign companies,” Abtahi added.

According to the Iranian tobacco company over one third of cigarettes around the world are contributed by smugglers.

“Before the ninth government, 45 percent of cigarette contributions at domestic levels were carried out by smugglers,” he said. “By offering more authority to Iran's Tobacco Company, the company succeeded to control the domestic market favoring national interest.”

“The country launched various programs to control and decrease cigarette smoking among 12 million Iranian smokers,” he added.