The Switzerland-based Oettinger Davidoff Group has created a new wholly owned subsidiary for the Spanish market—Davidoff of Geneve Iberia, according to a story in Expansion.
The setting-up of the new subsidiary followed the ending of a collaboration agreement with the Spanish distributor Proein.
The new unit will absorb Proein’s staff.
People breaking the UAE’s new anti-tobacco law face the risk of being fined from today, according to a Khaleej Times story.
Enforcement agencies across the emirates are expected to target people smoking in cars containing young people, people selling cigarettes to minors and people operating shisha joints in restricted areas.
Anyone caught smoking in a car with children present is liable to be fined AED500. A repeat offence will attract a fine of AED1,000.
Fines ranging from AED100,000 to AED1 million will be imposed on violators of tobacco prohibitions in commercial establishments.
However, the UAE’s anti-tobacco crusader believes most of the government bodies assigned to implement the regulations are only partly ready to get tough on violators.
The head of the National Tobacco Control Committee at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Wedad Al Maidoor, said the authorities might not be fully ready for enforcement of the tobacco bylaws today.
“I also don’t expect the enforcement to be strict initially,” she said.
South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) said yesterday that it would decide the details of its compensation suit against KT&G and other tobacco manufacturers at a board meeting on Jan. 24, according to a story in The Korea Times.
“The board will decide when to file the suit and how much it will seek in damages,” an NHIS official was quoted as saying. “If details are approved, the filing can take place as early as a day after the meeting.”
Given this, the NHIS’s legal action against local and foreign tobacco manufacturers is expected to take place earlier than had previously been expected.
Last month, NHIS President Kim Jong-dae said the NHIS would file a suit against tobacco companies to recover medical costs which it had incurred due to smoking-related diseases.
“Tobacco makers should be responsible for health insurance payments for smoke-related diseases, which stood at 1.69 trillion won in 2009,” he said.
Japan Tobacco Inc.’s domestic cigarette sales volume during December, at 10.4 billion, was increased by 1.1 percent on that of December 2012, 10.3 billion, according to preliminary figures issued by the company today. The December 2012 figure was down by 4.5 percent on that of December 2011.
Volume during April–December, at 89.7 billion, was up by 0.4 percent on that of April–December 2012, 89.4 billion, which was increased by 10.5 percent on that of April–December 2011.
JT’s market share stood at 61.4 percent in December, at 60.8 percent during April–December, and at 59.6 percent for the full year to the end of March.
JT’s domestic cigarette revenue during December, at ¥57.0 billion, was increased by 0.7 percent on its December 2012 revenue, ¥56.6 billion.
Revenue during April–December, at ¥492.1 billion, was more or less unchanged from that of April–December 2012, ¥492.0 billion.
JT’s consolidated financial results, which will include its domestic tobacco business performance for the third quarter to the end of December, are due to be announced on Jan. 30.
India’s tobacco and tobacco products exports are expected to have earned INR50 billion in the financial year to the end of March, 29 percent more than was earned during the year to the end of March 2013, according to a story in the most recent issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.
Despite this increase in exports, the Tobacco Board of India is concerned that tobacco farming is facing challenges thrown up by local anti-smoking campaigns and by India’s participation in the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
So the chairman of the board, Dr. K. Gopal, has promised growers and traders that technical assistance will be provided to help them produce tobacco whose quality compares with the best in the world.
Smugglers intent on delivering cigarettes to Malaysia are doubling the horsepower of their boats and using their extensive knowledge of channel systems in a bid to outrun Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) officers, according to a story in The Star.
The MMEA says, too, that the Malaysian-based smugglers are working with syndicates from neighbouring countries.
In a previous story, The Star said an Affin Investment Bank research report had Malaysia’s illicit cigarette trade as accounting for 34.5 percent of the total market as at the end of 2013, compared with 20 percent in 2002.
The bank said the key culprit for the “rampant illegal activities” was the increase in cigarette prices over the years resulting from higher excise duties.
Philippine cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp. says it will this year embark on a three-pronged assistance program to benefit 65,000 tobacco farmers in the Cagayan Valley and Ilocos Region.
Executive Vice President Oscar Barrientos said the company had allocated PHP10 million for the distribution of agricultural equipment and tools to be used by groups of organized tobacco growers operating on farms without access to aids such as irrigation facilities and small tractors. The company would provide also about 20,000 long-sleeved farm shirts to ease the plight of tobacco farmers.
In addition, the company will launch a scholarship program, in tandem with the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), for children of tobacco farmers in the regions.
And the third component of the social responsibility program will see Mighty Corp. support the annual search by the NTA for outstanding tobacco farmers.
“Through this program, we want to help farmers reach the global productivity level on tobacco growing while increasing their levels of income,” Barrientos said.
“All of these will be extended as grants, not loans. We want to partner with the NTA and the farmers themselves to make sure the grants will reach the right people.”
The story said that Mighty Corp. was seeking the help of the NTA chief, Edgardo Zaragosa, so as to set in motion its expanded CSR program.
The Altria Group is due to host a live audio webcast at www.altria.com from 9 a.m. Eastern Time on Jan. 30 to discuss its 2013 fourth-quarter and full-year business results.
The company will issue a press note with its business results about 7 a.m. the same day.
During the webcast, which will be in listen-only mode, Chairman and CEO Marty Barrington and Executive Vice President and CFO Howard Willard will discuss the company’s results and answer questions from the investment community and news media.
Pre-event registration can be made at www.altria.com, where an archived copy of the webcast will be made available.
Imperial Tobacco’s cigarette factory in Antsirabe has been recognized for the high level of respect and care shown to employees.
Imperial’s subsidiary Sacimem was among 150 businesses to take part in a government scheme to evaluate health and safety as well as employee well-being.
The Sacimem factory, with 143 employees, was chosen as the best in the region and received a trophy in recognition of this from the work ministry.
Hervé Lamy, lead factory manager Indian Ocean, accepted the award and hosted a tour of the site.
“I’m very proud to accept the award on behalf of the company as it demonstrates the level of commitment we have made to our employees at this factory,” he said.
Research in South Africa has cast doubt on previous claims about the extent and effects of the illicit cigarette trade in South Africa.
In the conclusions to a research paper published yesterday by Tobacco Control, professor Corné van Walbeek of the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town said that, other than in 2010, there was no evidence that the illicit trade was significantly undermining government revenue.
And claims that the illicit trade had consistently increased during the past 15 years, and had continued its sharp increase since 2010, were not supported.
Van Walbeek indicated that the research had been undertaken after tobacco industry claims that the illicit trade in cigarettes had increased sharply since the 1990s and that government had lost substantial tax revenue.
He set out to determine whether cigarette excise tax revenue had been below budget in recent years, compared with previous decades, and to determine trends in the size of the illicit market since 1995.
The research found that cigarette excise revenues were 0.7 percent below budget for 2000–2012 on average, compared with 3 percent below budget for beer and 4.7 percent below budget for spirits.
It found that there was no evidence that the illicit trade in cigarettes in South Africa increased between 2002 and 2009, though it found that there was a substantial increase in 2010, which probably peaked in 2011.
And it found that in 2012 tax-paid consumption of cigarettes increased by 2.6 percent, implying that the illicit market share decreased an estimated 0.6 percentage points.
The research is published as an open access paper at http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2014/01/15/tobaccocontrol-2013-051178.full.pdf+html.