The Economic Expert Platform has launched an electronic map detailing the retail trade of tobacco products across regions and major communities in Ukraine.

As reported by Miroslav Laba, a tax and regulatory policy expert at the Economic Expert Platform, the map was created to strengthen monitoring of retail trade in tobacco products, with data on the map updated monthly. The regions are color-coded based on the level of shadow trade in tobacco products, and communities with the worst indicators of shadow economy are identified.

"Results from surveys conducted by the Ministry of Health confirm that Ukrainians consume more tobacco and nicotine-containing products. However, analytical data from the map show that official cigarette sales amounted to 11.8 billion UAH in 2023, dropping to 8.8 billion UAH in March 2024. Such a sharp decline in sales may indicate a shift by consumers to illegal cigarettes," noted the expert.

According to him, based on the map data, it is already evident that the highest shadow trade in tobacco products occurs in the regions of Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, Zaporizhzhia, Chernivtsi, and Zakarpattia.

As previously reported citing data from Kantar Ukraine, the share of illegal tobacco products in the total market volume in Ukraine reached a record high of 25.7% over the entire period of independence.