African leaf producers to protest against plain packs

Zimbabwe and other Sadc (Southern African Development Countries) leaf tobacco producers plan to lobby at a forthcoming World Health Organization (WHO) convention against the imposition of standard tobacco-products packaging, according to a story in the Zimbabwe Standard.

The countries say the move to standardized packaging prejudices their economies and promotes the sale of illicit cigarettes.

Since December 1, 2012, Australia has required that all tobacco products be sold in packaging designed on behalf of the previous Labor government to be as ugly as is possible. Packs are hugely dominated by graphic health warnings, are otherwise a standard olive color, have no logos or other design features, and have brand and variant names in a standardized font and position.

Several other countries are considering imposing standardized tobacco packaging, though some are awaiting the outcome of challenges to the Australian regulations currently before the World Trade Organization.

The Standard said that Zimbabwe’s tobacco industry employed thousands of people and that tobacco accounted for 10.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Last year, Zimbabwe had accounted for 44 percent of all leaf tobacco exports from Sadc, while Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi had accounted for 15 percent of global leaf tobacco exports.