Local firm introduces new cigar product

Local firm introduces new cigar product

YOGYAKARTA: In a bid to attract young smokers and create a bridge between cigarette and cigar smokers, Yogyakarta provincial government-owned cigar producer PD Taru Martani introduced a new product, Cigar van Java, which is a combination of a cigarette and a cigar.

"We call it a cigarette-cigar -- a cigar, but with the taste of a cigarette. As far as I know it's the first of its kind. We are the first to have produced such a product," PD Tarumartani's director Bimo N Wartono said prior to the pre-launching ceremony of the new product held at the factory in Baciro earlier this week.

Bimo said that young smokers would be the main target market of the new product, to be officially launched in nine months. They are those who want to try cigars, but are put off due to their strong flavor and/or relatively high price.

PD Taru Martani, which will produce the new product in cooperation with PT Yogyakarta Tembakau Indonesia and under the supervision of leading cigarette producer PT HM Sampoerna, plans to produce some 16,000 Cigar van Java per month and will sell them at Rp 10,000 each, in packs of five.

"It is indeed designed as a mass product. Still, it cannot be as mass as a cigarette product. If you can maintain production at 10,000 cigars a month, that would be good," Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X said at the pre-launching ceremony.

The sultan, who is himself a cigar smoker, was given the honor of selecting one of the six different types of cigarette-cigars prepared by the company for mass production. -- JP