Oct 18, 2010
By Robert Carmichael
DPA
Phnom Penh - A decade ago a packet of Marlboro cigarettes cost just a dollar a pack in Cambodia, manna from heaven for a smoker who had lived in London where it was six times that price.
Today that same packet costs 1 dollar and 5 cents, which is now one-10th the London price. Local brands start at just 20 cents. In short, smoking in Cambodia is - as in many developing countries - very cheap.
Price goes a long way to explaining why this impoverished nation has one of the highest smoking rates in the region: Almost one Cambodian male in two above the age of 15 smokes. Among women the rate is lower - just 4 per cent smoke, but nearly one in five chews tobacco.
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