E-cigarette manufacturer Flow will stop producing non-tobacco flavored e-liquid cartridges for the Chinese market to comply with new regulations, reports Pandaily.
In November 2021, the Chinese government granted the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration jurisdiction over the vapor business. Since then, authorities have published a series of new rules. Among other things, e-cigarette manufacturers must sell their products through authorized channels. Retailers, meanwhile, are required to buy all vapor products through a “unified platform” and restrict the liquids sold on the Chinese market to tobacco flavors.
According to the Blue Book of the E-Cigarette Industry, there were nearly 190,000 e-cigarette retail stores in China in 2021, including 138,000 authorized stores, 47,000 specialty stores, and 5,000-7,000 “collection” stores.
Currently, fruit-flavored e-cigarettes account for more than 70 percent of sales in many retail outlets.