Shahrvand quotes Kantar Media Philippines, a market research agency and writes, the largest consumers of chewing gum in the world are Iran (80% of population), Saudi Arabia (79% of population) and the USA (59% of population). The report estimates the value of Iran’s chewing gum market as 15 trillion IRRs, 75% of which are smuggled into the country. On the other hand, official reports from the customs agency only indicate 0.5% imports of chewing gum into the country mainly from the UAE, Russia, Turkey and Italy. Shahrvand writes that one of the reasons for the popularity of chewing gum among Iranians may be the fact that many shops use gum as spare change.
