The National Tobacco Enterprise (NTE), a monopoly, has acquired a new 140 million Br cigarette making and packing machine, which could raise its annual production to six billion sticks - the amount it says is smoked by Ethiopia's 1.5 million smokers.
The 70-year-old Enterprise, which started production with a single machine and brand called Nigusu in 1942, had been operating with same machine for over 60 years until it bought a new one for 150 million Br in 2003; that machine could produce 7,000 sticks a minute. The latest machine, with a capacity to produce 12,000 cigarettes a minute, will be its third machine in 70 years.
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