Shorter cigarettes launched in India as higher prices force consumption down

Cigarette manufacturers in India are launching shorter-length versions of popular brands in an attempt to revive the market following a sharp surge in prices, according to a story in the most recent issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

Sales were said to have dropped by about 3 percent during the six months from April to September.

Manufacturers are said to be meeting with sales success with sub-65 mm and 69 mm versions of normally 74 mm and 84 mm products.

India’s cigarette market is made up of length-based categories that attract different rates of tax, and the sub-65 mm filter cigarette became a new, low-tax category last year when the Indian budget was brought down.

The setting-up of the new category was aimed mainly at providing competition for the illicit trade.

Another factor that is said to be boosting the sale of small-sized packs is the ban on the oral tobacco product gutkha, which has been imposed in 26 states and seven union territories.

Earlier this month it was announced that U.S. researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, Center for Global Tobacco Control, had found that smokers of long or ultra-long cigarettes were at greater risk of lung and oral cancer than were the smokers of regular and king-sized cigarettes.