6 April 2005

MADRID-The Franco-Spanish tobacco firm Altadis has put up the price of its cigarettes in an effort to stop young people buying them.

The brands Fortuna and Nobel will go up 10 cent, making the cost of a packet EUR 2.20.

The strong Ducados brand will go up 0.15 cent, bringing the cost of one packet to EUR 2.10.

The rise in prices was widely-expected by the market, after the company´s co-president Jean Jaques Comolli said they might raise prices by up to five percent.

The new prices are to come into force once they have been published in the Spanish government Bulletin of State.

Spain still has some of the cheapest cigarettes in Europe, after Portugal and Greece. Just under one in three in Spain smokes.

Heart disease, often linked to smoking, is the chief cause of death.

The latest price rises are in contrast to the cut in prices by the British and Canary Island-based tobacco companies, Imperial and Cita, who are seeking to attract more young consumers.

Brands like American Jeans, owned by Western Tobacco, or Burton Original, owned by Tabak House, are selling cigarette packets for little more than EUR 1, in order to attract younger and poorer consumers.

But the Union of Association of Tobacconists advocated last week a minimum price for a packet of cigarettes to prevent younger people from taking up the habit.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news