Philippines: BIR Reports Cigarette Production up

Source from:  Manila Bulletin 08/27/2014

Amid reports about the declining number of smokers in the country, volume of cigarette withdrawals from local manufacturing facilities increased in the first semester of the year, while beers and wines' production output declined during the period.

Data from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) showed yesterday that total cigarette removals stood at 1.47 billion packets in the January to June this year, higher by 2.8 percent compared with 1.43 billion the same period last year.

The data, which were distributed to reporters by BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares, revealed volume of cigarettes with a retail price of over P11.5 a pack in 20's increased 77 percent to 319.86 million from 180.92 million a year ago.

Popular cigarette brands that retail above P11.5 per packet are Marlboro, Fortune, Philip Morris, and Winston. Other premium brands like Lucky Strike and Pall Mall, meanwhile, are imported from Malaysia.

On the other hand, volume of cigarettes with a retail price of below P11.5 per a pack in 20's grew 3.2 percent in the first six-months in 2014 to 1.036 billion from 1.004 billion in the same period last year.

Cigarette brands that sell below P11.5 a packet are Mighty, Jackpot and Winnsboro.

However, BIR data showed that local tobacco manufacturers did not produce cigarette products packed in 30's and 5's in January to June this year. In the same period in 2013, cigarettes companies manufactured 83,000 and 8,000 packets, receptively.

Meanwhile, volume of cigarettes packed in 10's declined 54 percent to 112.97 million from 244.67 million in the same period last year.

While volume of manufactured cigarettes increased this year, local production output of some alcoholic beverage companies fell during the first six-months of the year.

BIR data showed total output of fermented liquors, popularly known as beer, dropped 1.2 percent in January to June 2014 to 685.1 billion liters from 693.6 billion in the same period last year.

Of the total beer production at end-June, bottles with a retail price of below P50.6 per liter fell 2.3 percent to 603.87 billion liters from 617.94 billion a year ago, while those bottles retailed at above 50.6 per liter increased 7.4 percent to 81.22 million from 75.63 million.

Production volume of microbreweries, meanwhile, improved by 11.6 percent to 1,895 liters from 1,698 in the first six-months of last year. Enditem