The tobacco market is still a troubled segment, since the level of smuggling has once again increased towards the end of last year. Taxes account for more than 80% of the price of cigarettes, and the players in the industry are not happy with the legislation. In an interview, Szabo Gyongyike, the manager of "Taban Trafic", of Arad, discusses the issues he faces in his business as a tobacco importer and trader, and his opinions on how they could be fixed.
* Interview with Szabo Gyongyike, the manager of "Taban Trafic"
Reporter: What is your view on the current state of the tobacco market?
Szabo Gyongyike: Like any economic activity, the market for tobacco products is full of obstacles. The market that we operate on is quite difficult, because an important quota of that segment is represented by contraband, which influences the development of certain ranges of products. The economic and financial crisis in Europe is affecting the Romanian market as well, as the cigarette distributors are rather wary of promoting new ranges of products. The legislation isn't exactly helping us either, since it is extremely convoluted, prone to interpretation and frequently modified.
Reporter: In spite of all this, the company you represent still exists and keeps going. How are you dealing with the crisis?
Szabo Gyongyike: In order to overcome the economic crisis, we have revised the expenses a bit, cutting them wherever possible, but we have placed the emphasis on sales, as we have launched new marketing strategies, in order to boost our market segment. Two important elements which very heavily affect our position on the market and the volume of our sales are the quality and the price of our products. They have always been our company's main focus and we have therefore succeeded in keeping our position on the distribution market, with a low ma
