S.Korea's cigarette imports double in 2015 on local price hike

South Korea's cigarette imports more than doubled in 2015 from a year earlier due to a surge in local cigarette prices, customs data showed Thursday.

The country imported 1,877 tons of cigarettes in 2015, more than two-fold from 823 tons in the previous year, according to Korea Customs Service.

In terms of value, cigarette imports jumped 117.3 percent from the previous year to 34.57 million U.S. dollars in 2015.

The surge came as the South Korea government raised the average price of local cigarettes by a whopping 80 percent from the beginning of last year.

German cigarettes were most popular, accounting for 22.7 percent of the total imports in 2015. The next popular origin of cigarettes was Poland with 15.1 percent and Lithuania with 14.8 percent each.

Electronic cigarette imports also jumped 41.6 percent from a year earlier to 196 tons in 2015 as smokers rushed to stop smoking due to surging product prices.

In terms of value, electronic cigarette imports increased 33.3 percent to 13.53 million dollars. The figure was a rise of more than 13-fold in the past three years.