New Cheap Brand Goes on Market in Southeast China

Source from:  Straits Tobacco News 07/03/2006

The Bumper Harvest - a new low-priced cigarette product jointly developed by a Chinese tobacco research institute and five tobacco manufacturers - went on the market in southeast China's Fujian Province in mid-June, and is sold at a proposed retail price of only two yuan (25 U.S. cents) per packet. In early 2006, the STMA adopted a decision to designate Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute and Xiamen, Nanjing, Changde, Wuhan and Fuyang Cigarette Factories to develop the Bumper Harvest as a new low-priced cigarette brand shared by them. The STMA decision is viewed as an effective measure to reform the market of low-grade cigarettes in China. Xiamen Cigarette Factory affiliated to Fujian Provincial China Tobacco Industry Corporation is one of the first tobacco manufacturing enterprises designated to produce the Bumper Harvest, after it won a STMA tender, with its proposed blending formula receiving a highest comprehensive core. The development of the Bumper Harvest was in full compliance with the requirements of the STMA to develop a national single tobacco market in China and develop new cigarette products with consistent styles and stable quality, and based on extensive solicitation of opinions from experts and traders and repeated readjustments to optimize the blending formula. It is also part of a measure taken by the tobacco industry of China to reform the structure of cigarette products in accordance with the reform plan of the STMA. Over a future period of time, the five tobacco manufacturers will all produce Bumper Harvest cigarettes using the same blending formula and respectively sell the product to different parts of China. The final blending formula for the Bumper Harvest has been determined on the basis of the formulas proposed by all the five tobacco manufacturers. The Bumper Harvest cigarettes on sale in the market in Fujian Province bear the wording of "Made by Xiamen Cigarette Factory under the supervision of China National Tobacco Corporation," with a wholesale price of 18 yuan (2.25 U.S. dollars) per carton. Fujian Provincial China Tobacco Industry Corporation is optimistic about sales of the Bumper Harvest. It has predicted that along with steady development of markets in other Chinese regions and gradual growth of the number of tobacco manufacturers licensed to produce the Bumper Harvest, the new cheap cigarette brand will become a top choice of most Chinese smokers. The advertisement used by Fujian Provincial China Tobacco Industry Corporation to promote the sale of the Bumper Harvest is "A Well-Off Life - The Bumper Harvest." Enditem