Author: Staff Writer

Malawi’s tobacco selling season is due to open in the middle of March, according to a Zodiak Malawi story quoting the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC).

The TCC chief, Dr. Bruce Munthali, said that tobacco sales at Lilongwe, Limbe and Chinkhoma would start during the second week of March, while the Mzuzu auction floors would open in April.

Last year the country sold only 79 million kg of tobacco, far below the 237 million kg sold during 2011.

But Munthali said he was “very optimistic” that tobacco production this season would be double that of last season, partly because of the helpful rains that had fallen.

There was hope, too, that Malawi would produce quality tobacco, he added.

Munthali has appealed to farmers to take care of their tobacco and avoid mixing it with non related materials; so as to reduce rejection rates.

Swedish Match’s sales for the year to the end of December, at SEK12,486 million, were up by seven per cent on those of 2011.

And sales during the fourth quarter of 2012, at SEK3,148 million, were up by three per cent on those of the fourth quarter of 2011.

Calculated in local currencies, sales for the full year increased by six per cent and for the fourth quarter by four per cent.

Operating profit from product areas (excluding net profit from SM’s share in STG and larger one off items) for the full year increased by nine per cent to SEK3,666 million, while fourth-quarter operating profit from product areas fell by two per cent to SEK883 million. In local currencies, operating profit from product areas for the full year increased by eight per cent and was flat for the fourth quarter.

Operating profit (including net profit from SM’s share in STG and larger one off items) amounted to SEK4,062 million for the full year 2012, up from SEK3,702 million in 2011, and to SEK986 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, down from SEK1,022 million during the fourth quarter of 2011.

Basic earnings per share increased for the full year by 18 per cent to SEK14.33 and for the fourth quarter by 15 per cent to SEK3.93.

While opposing the planned introduction of standardized packaging for tobacco products in New Zealand, two multinationals have welcomed news that the country is to delay a decision on implementation until the resolution of World Trade Organization disputes involving Australia, the only country so far to have introduced such packaging.

‘In her official statement earlier today [February 19] announcing New Zealand’s plans regarding standardized packaging, Health Minister Tariana Turia said, “the Government will wait and see what happens with Australia’s legal cases, making it a possibility that if necessary, enactment of New Zealand legislation and/or regulations could be delayed pending those outcomes,” Philip Morris International said in a note posted on its website.

‘This announcement demonstrates that the New Zealand government recognizes the significant international trade issues with standardized packaging and will not implement it until the pending international legal challenges to Australia’s law are resolved.

‘There is no credible evidence that standardized packaging will lower smoking rates, but strong evidence that it will jeopardize jobs, benefit the black market for cigarettes, and is a breach of international trade rules that have already made Australia’s policy subject to WTO action.’

PMI said there were three avenues of litigation that had been and are being pursued against the Australian government in relation to this legislation: one at the domestic level and two at the international level. While the domestic case had been decided, the international cases remained open and unresolved.

‘Currently three countries have initiated proceedings against Australia before the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the ground that the standardized packaging legislation is contrary to Australia’s obligations as a WTO member,’ the PMI note said. ‘Philip Morris Asia (PMA) is also suing Australia for multiple breaches of its Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with Hong Kong. Decisions in these cases are expected within two to three years.

‘In broad terms, these cases will examine a number of issues, including:

* ‘Whether there is any valid evidence that standardized packaging will reduce smoking rates;

* ‘Whether there are effective, less restrictive alternatives that Australia could have implemented instead;

* ‘Whether standardized packaging breaches Australia’s international trade and treaty obligations

* ‘Whether the Australian government will need to pay compensation to PMA.’

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO RESPONDS

Meanwhile, Kingsley Wheaton, director of corporate and regulatory affairs at British American Tobacco, said that his company understood the reasons why the New   Zealand government had taken the pragmatic step of deferring its decision regarding plain packaging.

“The New Zealand government has listened to the many arguments for and against this regulatory measure and has acknowledged both the importance of the issue to its trade obligations, as well as the impending World Trade Organization challenge that Australia is currently facing,” he said.

“We support reasonable and evidence-based regulation but there is still no credible evidence to suggest plain packaging will support the New Zealand government’s stated public health objectives. In fact, ill-thought through regulation, like plain packaging, brings with it the very real threat of serious unintended consequences, such as a rise in the number of smokers willing to turn to the black market.

“Furthermore, plain packs play right into the hands of the counterfeiters who are ready and waiting to supply people, regardless of their age, with cheap tobacco products.

“We remain opposed to the plain packaging of tobacco products not only because of the lack of credible evidence to suggest it will deliver its policy aims but also due to the likely and serious unintended consequences.”

In an attempt to put some clear water between the UK and New Zealand, where both governments have been considering the question of standardized packaging for tobacco products, campaigners say that developments in New Zealand are not relevant to the UK, where the government has yet to make a decision.

The campaigners say that reports that the New Zealand government is to follow Australia and introduce standardized packaging for tobacco products would “infuriate” consumers in New Zealand.

“The decision will infuriate thousands of people who took part in a public consultation in New Zealand because the majority were against plain packaging,” said Angela Harbutt, of the UK’s Hands Off Our Packs campaign, which is managed by Forest.

“In contrast we expect our government to take into account the enormous level of opposition to plain packaging in the UK. This includes consumer and retail groups, packaging and design companies, retired and serving police officers.

“The UK consultation on standardised packaging attracted 700,000 responses, half a million opposed to plain packs. It would be extraordinary if the government ignored that level of protest. People would rightly ask serious questions about the political process.”

Harbutt said that tobacco control legislation in Australia and New Zealand was not relevant to the UK.

“New Zealand has been forced into alignment with Australia,” she said. “The Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement (TTMRA), an agreement whereby goods that can be legally sold in New Zealand may also be legally sold in Australia, and vice versa, would have seriously undermined Australia’s plain packaging experiment. They couldn’t let that happen.”

Japan Tobacco Inc said today that it would be adding Mevius Premium Menthol 8 to its 100 per cent natural menthol product range, Mevius Premium Menthol.

The new product is the first Mevius menthol product to deliver 8 mg tar.

Mevius, which is Mild Seven redesigned and rebranded, will be rolled out across Japan from mid-March.
Currently the range comprises two products delivering 1 mg of tar, Mevius Premium Menthol One 100s and Mevius Premium Menthol One, and one delivering 5 mg of tar, Mevius Premium Menthol 5.

JT’s internal research indicates that the menthol category is growing in Japan.

NDC-Infrared Engineering has redesigned its website (www.ndc.com/tobacco) and published a new, industry–specific brochure.

The new website is said to provide enhanced navigation to allow visitors to find information on the use of NIR moisture and multi-component tobacco gauges for quality assurance and process control in tobacco leaf processing, primary tobacco processing and reconstituted sheet tobacco.

‘The simplified approach to navigation makes it easy for visitors to identify their market and application area and makes extensive use of intuitive or “friendly” URLs such as www.ndc.com/reconsheet etc,’ said an NDC press note. ‘This industry-driven approach makes it easy to identify the most appropriate product or system for the application.

‘The new site offers the benefit of providing easily accessible basic information, with further information such as application notes available following registration. All registrations from NDC’s previous site will be carried over, so there will be no need to re-register.

‘The site also makes it very easy to identify the local market-relevant NDC contact anywhere in the world.’

Meanwhile, a new, industry-focused brochure is available for immediate download. ‘This describes the measurement of moisture, nicotine, sugars and temperature and covers applications in a host of tobacco processing applications,’ the note said.

‘These include: whole leaf in the GLT or Primary; strips; blended strips (lamina); re-dried cut lamina; final blend; WTS Water Treated Stem; CRS Cut Rolled Stem; re-dried stem; expanded tobacco; roll-your-own tobacco; shorts; pipe tobacco, cigar filler and reconstituted sheet tobacco.’

The New Zealand government is to go ahead with plans to introduce standardized packaging for tobacco products, according to stories by Kate Shuttleworth for the New Zealand Herald and Nick Perry for Associated Press.

However, it will hold off on implementation until after World Trade Organization challenges are concluded in respect of Australia’s introduction of such packaging late last year.

New   Zealand’s associate minister of health, Tariana Turia, said she expected the WTO case to be completed within 12 to 18 months; so New Zealander’s could expect plain packs to be on the shelves sometime next year.

“It won’t take years and years,” said Turia. “We know that we’ve got trade obligations and we take them seriously… but we are confident that plain packaging can be introduced consistently with those obligations.”

// The government would probably face legal action even if Australia defeated the challenges it is facing, said Turia. But she believed the risk would be greatly reduced if Australia won its cases.

Russia’s Ministry of Health has approved new rules that will require all school children over 10 years of age to undergo annual blood and breath tests to determine whether or not they have been smoking, according to an Izvestia story.

The examination program will include also ultrasound testing of the liver, kidneys, heart and thyroid; and, for those 14 years of age and older, hormone tests and ultrasound testing of the reproductive organs.

The story said that the children would be tested for smoking through blood analysis and ‘smokerlyzer’ tests. ‘The tests will identify carboxyhemoglobin and carbon monoxide, both by-products of smoking,’ it added.

But the efficacy of the testing methods has been called into question already. Testing, it is said, will be able to tell only whether a child has been smoking just before the test is carried out, and it will not tell the difference between smoking and passive smoking.

Additionally, the smokerlyzer test has been criticized because it reveals only a positive or a negative result and shows no error rate.

British American Tobacco is looking to launch brands new to the Philippines as part of efforts to increase its market share in that country, according to a story in The Philippine Star.

Currently, the company makes only modest sales of Lucky Strike in the Philippines, but it has plans to probe the market further following the passage of the sin tax bill, which is seen as having levelled out a competitive playing field previously skewed against new brands.

BAT Philippines general manager, James Lafferty, was quoted as saying the introduction of new-to-the-market products, including possibly a ‘low-tier’ one, was part of BAT’s commitment to invest about $200 million in the Philippine market over five years following the passage of the sin tax bill.

Lafferty said the group was mulling the establishment of a manufacturing plant in the country, but added that nothing had been finalized.
“We’re certainly committed to stay,” he said. “We’re investing full speed ahead. The $200 million investment could even go up should we decide to put up a manufacturing facility here.”

Smuggled cigarettes account for about 18-22 per cent of Vietnam’s annual cigarette sales of 70-75 billion, according to a story in the Phnom Penh Post.

Last year, 12.9 billion cigarettes were estimated to have been smuggled into the country from Cambodia, up from 11.4 billion during 2011, according to figures from the Vietnam Tobacco Association (VTA).

The VTA has warned that local manufacturers will risk losing their dominant position on the Vietnamese market if effective measures are not taken to counter the threat of smuggled cigarettes.