Tobacco.org

• Smoker’s Paradise 

The first thing visitor’s are greeted by in Eastern Tobacco Company’s (ETC) reception is a striking poster of Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx. In between them sits a massive pack of Cleopatra cigarettes, as if the well-known company brand is a large part of Egypt’s heritage. Funny, yes. But the picture doesn’t really lie. Eastern Tobacco products, including Cleopatra and Boston cigarettes and fruit-flavored shisha tobacco, are among the oldest and most well known products manufactured in the country.

Established in 1920 as a subsidiary of the Chemicals Industries Holding Company, ETC is the sole manufacturer of tobacco in Egypt. In the Egyptian market, at least 95% of cigarettes produced are domestic brands, the remaining 5% foreign brands that ETC manufactures under license. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics’ records released June 2008, there are at least 13 million smokers in Egypt consuming nearly 80 billion cigarettes annually. . . .

Are you a smoker?

Of course. I only smoke ETC products; cigars and molasses. You know, cigars are becoming fashionable among women now. The only problem I have with smoking cigars, though, is my wife. . . .

Do your children smoke?

I have three children and I don’t encourage any of them to smoke. But I suspect that my eldest son smokes. He never smokes in front of me, though. Honestly, I feel ashamed when I see young people smoking. I feel sad. But I believe that ETC is only working to cover the demands of smokers, not to increase the number of smokers. You see, we don’t advertise our products. Personally, I feel scared when I see a young boy or girl smoking, but what can I do? This is the price I pay for my job. . . .

Fires erupt in big factories all the time and there is nothing specific you can do to stop this happening entirely. The factory didn’t stop working for one minute. We have four floors in the Al-Zomor factory. The fire started on just one floor and some paper reels were burned. It was amusing, however, to read in the papers that important files got burned in the fire. Why would I keep important files in a minor factory? Anyway, the fire lasted for a few hours, and that was it. We will try to work on preventing this in the future. I will start banning people from smoking in the company buildings, but what can we do? We’re a tobacco company. People smoke everywhere. This is our business.

Jump to full article »