Korea sales down

Sales of cigarettes in South Korea fell 0.7 percent in 2019 from a year earlier due to anti-smoking campaigning and higher prices, reports The Korea Herald, citing data compiled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Smokers purchased 3.45 billion 20-cigarette packs last year, compared with 3.47 billion packs in 2018.

The figure represents a 20.9 percent drop from 2014, a year before South Korea increased the price of cigarettes by 80 percent, from KRW2,500 ($2.14) per pack to KRW4,500.

In 2016, South Korea also mandated tobacco companies to print graphic health warnings on their products.

The 2018-2019 drop in sales of combustible cigarettes was partially offset by increased sales of heat-not-burn products: Sales of traditional cigarettes fell 2.4 percent on-year to 3.06 billion packs in 2019, while those of heat-not-burn electronic cigarettes rose 9.3 percent to 360 million packs last year.

The government’s cigarette tax collections dropped 6.5 percent, to KRW11 trillion, in 2018-2019.