KT&G Corporation

KT&G is a Korean tobacco company, formerly known as Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corporation. The company operates five cigarette production plants and two leaf processing facilities, as well as its own printing plant. In 2003, the company began plans to build a foreign production facility in Turkey. While remaining committed to growth in its tobacco business, in 2003 KT&G launched a diversification drive, targeting expansion into the biotech sector. The Middle East and other Asian markets presently form the largest share of the group's exports, at 80 percent; the company generates approximately 17 percent of its sales in the North and South American markets.