The Monopoly quickly became a demanding customer for the Polish tobacco farmers, as it had to cater to the rapidly growing number of smokers in the country after the Second World War. Cigarette production grew at an equally impressive rate. Already by 1960 Poland was one of the world’s leaders in cigarette manufacture.52 The production quotas set by the state were so high
that in the late 1950s the Polish Tobacco Monopoly cautioned the authorities that they might be exceeding demand for cigarettes in the country.53 Nonetheless, the output of Polish cigarettes
more than doubled, from 26 billion sticks in 1950 to 60.5 billion in 1965 (Figure 11). Initially the state had to increase tobacco imports, principally from Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, to meet the Monopoly’s demand. However, farm production of tobacco also grew, increasing fivefold
between 1945 and 1969. Polish tobacco farmers increased their output by 50% between 1964 and 1969 alone. The surplus was sold abroad, quadrupling Polish tobacco exports between 1965 and 1969. At the same time, Polish imports of tobacco dropped from over 19,000 tons in 1963 to less than 11,000 tons in 1967. This trade surplus by the mid-1960s also extended to cigarettes, as Polish imports fluctuated around 1.4 billion pieces (mostly imported from Bulgaria and Cuba), while exports stood at over 7.5 billion (over 90% shipped to the USSR).54
49 A. Synowiec, Przemysł tytoniowy w Polsce w okresie pierwszego planu pięcioletniego [Tobacco industry in
Poland during the first five years plan], ed. T. Grabowski, vol. 5, Pragmateia (Kraków: Towarzystwo Wydawnicze 'Historia Iagellonica', 2014).
50 Clifford et al., "Tobacco industry influence over tobacco tax policy during privatisation and European
Union accession in Poland."
51 I. Zawistowski, "Quality Fundamentals," ed. Tobacco reporter(British American Tobacco Records, 1995).
52 Synowiec, Przemysł tytoniowy w Polsce w okresie pierwszego planu pięcioletniego [Tobacco industry in
Poland during the first five years plan], 5. P. 135.
53 Ibid. P. 192.
130
Figure 11. Cigarette sales in Poland, in billion units (1950-1987)
Source: Central Statistical Office, as reported in K. Przewozniak and W. Zatoński, "Tobacco Smoking in Poland in the Years 1923-1987," Polish Population review 3 (1993). P. 105. During the 1960s the Polish tobacco industry became both a source of revenue for the treasury thanks to the Monopoly’s growing income from cigarette sales, and a source of foreign currency thanks to the growing exports of both cigarettes and tobacco.55 For example, the four thousand
tons of flue cured tobacco exported in 1964 alone brought in $4.1 million to the state coffers.56
By the end of the 1960s Poland became a significant player on the world tobacco market. In 1970, with a production of 69 billion sticks, it ranked as the 12th largest cigarette producer
worldwide, accounting for 2.2% of global production.57
As cigarettes were becoming a high-profile trade item for the Polish economy, the authorities began to pay closer attention to quality control of the Polish Tobacco Monopoly products in the 1970s.58 The export success of Polish tobacco was particularly impressive considering the fact
that the tobacco grown in Poland, the northernmost country to grow the crop on an industrial
55 B. Rejnowski, "Tytoń na świecie - produkcja, areał i plony [Tobacco around the world]," Wiadomości
Tytoniowe 4 (1973).
56 Unknown, "Poland's changing tobacco trade."
57 "Z prasy zagranicznej [From the foreign press]," Wiadomości Tytoniowe 6 (1974).
131 scale, had the reputation of being of very poor quality by western producers.59 In addition, the
industrial cigarette production process and machinery used in Poland were antiquated, and the resulting product also lagged far behind western cigarettes in quality. In 1960 over 60% of all cigarettes produced in Poland belonged to one of the brands with the poorest quality – Sport cigarettes. Polish customers complained about finding pieces of cloth, wires, or pebbles in their cigarettes, as well as the sloppy printing which meant that the brand names on cigarette packets were often smudged.60 Production was focused on quantity not quality, and any additional
training for the labourers was viewed as a waste of potentially productive time.61
The Polish tobacco producers saw an opportunity for modernisation in the decision of the new PZPR leader, Edward Gierek, to open up Poland to the West in the 1970s. Gierek’s aim was to restore economic growth by shifting the economy away from heavy industry and towards consumer products.62 He authorised heavy borrowing from western banks in the hope of jump-
starting a consumer market in the communist country, in return permitting some products from capitalist countries on to the Polish market.63 Collaboration between the Polish tobacco industry
and western companies began in 1973, when the Kraków tobacco SOE signed a licensing
agreement with Philip Morris for the production of Marlboro cigarettes, which was also intended to allow the Poles to learn about modern technological processes in cigarette production.64
Throughout the 1970s the Polish Tobacco Monopoly also explored experimental avenues for competing with other tobacco-exporting countries. In 1971 the Monopoly began trialling the production of a type of crop that through the application of a special chemical process yielded a low nicotine and low tar nicotine leaf.65 This awakened the interest of the international press. In
an article published in the New York Post on 26 April 1971 the author describes his experience of smoking what he calls ‘probably the safest cigarette in the world. If I smoked 50 a day for the rest
59 Unknown, "Exports of Polish Leaf Tobacco Rise Again," ed. Tobacco Journal International(Tobacco
Institute Records; RPCI Tobacco Institute and Council for Tobacco Research Records, 1985); Czerwińska, Koronowski, and Stankiewicz, "Przemysł tytoniowy a zagadnienie monopolu państwowego [The tobacco industry and the question of state monopoly]."
60 Synowiec, Przemysł tytoniowy w Polsce w okresie pierwszego planu pięcioletniego [Tobacco industry in
Poland during the first five years plan], 5. Pp. 130-164.
61 Zawistowski, "Quality Fundamentals."
62 M.D. Simon and R.E. Kanet, Background to Crisis: Policy and Politics in Gierek's Poland(Boulder, Colorado:
Westview Press, 1981). P. XI.
63 W. C. Cockerham, Health and Social Change in Russia and Eastern Europe (New York: Routledge, 1999).
P. 152.
64 Unknown, "Papierosy Marlboro [Marlboro Cigarettes]," Wiadomości Tytoniowe 5 (1974).
65 "Monopoly tests nicotine-free brand,"(Tobacco Institute Records; RPCI Tobacco Institute and Council for
132 of my life I’d be in no greater danger than if I was gulping sea air, according to its
manufacturers.’66 The industry magazine Tobacco International reported that interest in the
Polish product has been displayed ‘in Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Japan and West Germany’, and leading western newspapers, including the Guardian, the Times, and the Wall Street Journal also picked up the story.67
While the nicotine-free cigarette unsurprisingly never took off as a mass consumer product, the expensive Marlboro cigarettes had to wait until the 1990s to exceed 2% of market share, and the production process of cigarettes in Poland remained out-dated, nonetheless the tobacco market in Poland continued to grow rapidly throughout the 1970s.68 Cigarette output increased to over
90 billion pieces in 1979 (Figure 11), driven by a per capita consumption growth from 1603 cigarettes per person per annum in 1950 to 2613 in 1978.69 This followed the trend of all
Comecon countries, where, by 1977, cigarette production reached almost 650 billion units. Poland was the third largest exporter in the bloc, although it stood only at 9.5% of total Comecon exports, with Bulgaria at 69.6% and Cuba at 14.2%.70 As exports grew, so did Polish tobacco
production, and by 1978 Poland was the fourth largest producer of the crop in Europe, after the USSR, Bulgaria, and Greece.71 The Tobacco Reporter forecast that as there ‘is not overt
Government effort to discourage cigarette consumption in Poland sales are expected to continue to rise.’72