Knock-off Palace and Marlboro brands manufactured in North Korea impress Chinese consumers with package design and quality rivaling authentic products, prompting vendors to shift distribution from domestic to cross-border channels.
A source in China told Daily NK recently that North Korean smugglers are distributing North Korean-made counterfeit cigarettes in Dandong, in China’s Liaoning province.
“Rip-offs of foreign brands like Palace and Marlboro are circulating along with cheap North Korean brands. But the foreign fakes were presumably manufactured in North Korea as well,” the source said.
The Palace cigarettes have a Japanese warning message on the package, but this is a classic example of a fake brand rather than an actual tobacco brand sold in Japan. The box labeled as Marlboro is also evidently a knock-off, the source said, since the language on the packaging differs from the genuine article.
Manufacturers liquidate stock overseas amid Chongju police crackdown
Why are so many North Korean-made counterfeit cigarettes being sold in China? It appears that North Korean manufacturers and dealers are shifting their focus to China because the regime’s tighter regulation of counterfeits is making domestic distribution more difficult.
In a previous report, Daily NK quoted a source in North Pyongan province as saying that the North Korean police in Chongju, a city considered a hub of counterfeit cigarettes, have been clamping down on their sale and distribution.
The police have warned that anybody caught engaging in the counterfeit cigarette business will face confiscation and fines, as well as criminal prosecution in severe cases. It seems likely that nervous manufacturers and dealers have opted to smuggle large quantities of their counterfeit products to China to liquidate their stock.
“Ethnic Chinese over there (in North Korea) say the crackdown this year is more severe than in previous years. Given the adverse conditions in the country, counterfeit cigarette manufacturers and dealers seem to have increased shipments bound overseas in partnership with exporters with access to sales channels,” the source said.
Chinese consumers have been impressed with North Korea’s fake smokes, which they say are comparable, both in package design and quality, to cigarettes produced at authentic plants.
“Many people say that North Korea’s knockoff cigarettes are similar in quality to legitimate products. Vendors of these knockoffs say that hardly any of their customers complain about quality anymore,” another source said.
The package design of these fake cigarettes has also gotten a major upgrade, much to the surprise of Chinese consumers. “This is pretty close to the real deal,” one consumer said, while another was astonished that knockoffs could look so authentic.
“Some even say that since nobody buys North Korean cigarettes for the brand anyway, the counterfeits should be given credit for their cheap price and decent flavor,” the source remarked.
This all suggests that the Chinese market is providing a distribution outlet for North Korean counterfeit cigarettes.
But since regulation of North Korean-made contraband is also tightening inside China, Daily NK’s sources agree that it’s uncertain how much longer the current situation will last.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dailynk.com
