2023-08-10 23:15:00
02:15 AM Friday, August 11, 2023
Books – Mahmoud Al-Toukhi
A significant decline in the prices of cigarettes, yesterday evening, Thursday, in Bab Al-Bahr Street shops in the center of the country for the first time since the beginning of the crisis last June, so that merchants began, yesterday evening, selling at the official prices for local types (24 pounds per pack of Cleopatra) at the prices set by the Eastern Tobacco Company. Which attracted large numbers of customers who gathered in front of the wholesale shops in lines that extended for dozens of meters inside the street.
Scuffles, as a result of which many altercations occurred between the pioneers, following the decrease in the prices of local cigarettes reached more than 300 pounds, which required the presence of security forces to organize the sale: Muhammad Abdel Majeed, a customer, says: “Clashes took place during the past hours, which prompted the shop owner To close the iron doors, and to stop sales temporarily.
Over the past two months, cigarettes have been the focus of attention of regarding 18 million smokers, according to estimates by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, following their prices reached record numbers, reaching regarding three times their official price. The prices of local brands such as (Cleopatra, Box and Super) reached 600 pounds per cartridge, 60 pounds per pack. .
Between those extended rows, Abdel Majeed stood clinging to an iron ring fixed to the wall to his right for more than an hour, as he came from Faisal at 3 pm: “I came here when I learned the news from one of my friends, to buy one or two Cleopatra cigarette cartridges.” After they decided to sell at the company’s prices.”
The measures taken by some merchants on the street allow customers to buy one “cartridge” of each brand of cigarettes, and the price of one Cleopatra and local brands was set at 240 pounds, equivalent to 24 pounds per pack, which is the official price approved by the Eastern Tobacco Company, according to one of the merchants ( He declined to be named: “Many customers bought cartridges of every kind for personal use, because in this case the price of imported cigarettes is even cheaper than the current local prices in the market.”
The fear of possible inspections of the warehouses is what prompted the major merchants inside the market to present these offers to get rid of some of the quantities stored with them.
The Ministry of the Interior announced, in a statement on Wednesday, that the intensive campaigns of the General Administration of Supply and Trade Police to confront the greed of merchants who withhold cigarettes resulted in the seizure of 3,465 cases of cigarettes during the month of July, with a total of regarding 995,000 packets of cigarettes seized.
The measures taken by the merchants of Bab Al-Bahr are signs of a solution to the crisis, according to one of the merchants, as a result of a decision announced by Hani Aman, CEO of the Eastern Tobacco Company, to pump regarding 8 million packs of cigarettes per day into the market, starting next week, following the company encountered problems in supplying materials. Crude oil during the last period, according to his statements, in which he indicated that the current crisis will end by next year.
Abdul Majeed, before returning home, grabbed a full cartridge at the official price, and managed to save regarding 340 pounds at market prices, but he made his intention to return tomorrow, to buy another one; In anticipation of their prices rising once more to what they were yesterday in the same street.
Bab Al-Bahr Street is considered the most famous wholesale market for selling cigarettes in Egypt, and retailers frequent it daily. It is expected that the price drop witnessed by cigarette prices on the most famous street will transfer to retail stores within two or three days, according to one of the street merchants.
The merchant, who preferred to remain anonymous, attributes the reason for the price drop before the date set by the company – during the next week – to the inspection campaigns that raided merchants’ shops during the past Wednesday and Thursday. This prompted many merchants to get rid of the quantities they had in their stores.
The continuation of selling at the prices announced – yesterday evening, Thursday – on Bab Al-Bahr Street, according to the merchant, depends on the quantities that will be pumped from the company to the markets and the regularity of the daily distribution process.
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