KT&G to expand exports after overseas sales triple

KT&G, Korea’s leading cigarette company, is expanding its export markets, including the United States and Africa, where sales have more than tripled in the last five years.

The company said it sold 1.84 billion cigarettes - 40 percent of cigarettes it sold overseas last year - in new markets including the United States, Africa and South America. The company did not give sales details in won or dollars but in how many single cigarettes they have sold.

The statistics show exceptional growth, as new markets only accounted for 15.4 percent of the company’s overseas sales in 2010.

The company’s major export markets have been the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia.

In the United States, cigarette sales have more than doubled in the last five years from 1.1 billion cigarettes to 2.8 billion.