A unit for supplying layers of cigarettes, wherein a supply outlet, presenting an open bottom end and a number of channels converging towards the bottom end, feeds a succession of layers of cigarettes along the channels to the bottom end; and an extracting device is associated with the outlet to expel the layers one by one in an extraction direction parallel to the cigarettes in the layer and on to a fixed pickup plate presenting a bottom surface for releasably retaining the cigarettes in a single layer.