Two U.S. tobacco giants have come to the rescue of Soviet smokers fuming over their worst cigarette shortage in decades.
Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco said Thursday they will supply billions of cigarettes to the Soviet Union, which has an estimated 70 million smokers out of a population of 285 million.Financial details were not disclosed.
The shipments could help ease a domestic crisis that has caused unhappy smokers to protest in the streets of Moscow and Leningrad this summer.
The companies have been emphasizing sales to foreign countries as the U.S. tobacco market gives ground to anti-smoking campaigns.
Philip Morris said the order by the Russian republic, the largest of the 15 Soviet republics, was the single biggest cigarette export order in the company's history.
Marlboro and other Philip Morris brands will be part of the order that will amount to more than 20 billion cigarettes by the end of next year. Shipments by Philip Morris International Inc., a division of Philip Morris Cos., will start at the end of this month.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco International Inc., a subsidiary of RJR Nabisco Inc., said it signed a separate agreement to ship 14 billion cigarettes to the Soviet Union.
Delivery of Winston and other R.J. Reynolds brands is expected to begin next month and conclude by September 1991, the company said.
The shortage of cigarettes became so severe in the Soviet Union this summer that rationing was imposed in Moscow, where jars of used butts were being sold on street corners for as much as $16.