Author: Taco Tuinstra

Activists Urge COP10 Consumer Participation

Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Consumer advocates are calling for the next New Zealand government to support greater consumer advocacy participation in the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Panama.
“The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has contributed to some progress in the implementation of tobacco control measures, but they need to provide honest, risk-proportionate communication and regulatory recommendations for Tobacco Harm Reduction [THR] products,” says Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator of the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (CAPHRA).
“While not perfect, these THR products can be a less harmful alternative to smoking and can help smokers quit. It is critical that smokers have access to accurate information about these products and that regulations are proportionate to their risks,” says Loucas.

The WHO FCTC should stop denying smokers, vapers and other tobacco users of their right to have a meaningful participation and inclusion in the formulation of policies that hugely impact them.
Nancy Loucas, executive coordinator, CAPHRA
“The WHO FCTC should stop denying smokers, vapers and other tobacco users of their right to have a meaningful participation and inclusion in the formulation of policies that hugely impact them.”
CAPHRA is calling on the New Zealand government and next minister of health to ask all member states who will be attending COP10 to reject the prohibitionist proposals contained in COP10 provisional agenda items 6.1 to 6.4 that the organization insists will just further contribute to millions more of unnecessary deaths from smoking.
“New Zealand should prioritize science-based inclusive policy making, including at the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It is essential that policy making is based on the best available evidence and that all stakeholders—including consumer advocates are included in the decision-making process,” said Loucas.
August 17, 2023
Zim Drops Offshore Funding Requirement

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Tobacco merchants operating in Zimbabwe will no longer have to source offshore the financing to support the production and buying of green leaf from contracted farmers, reports The Herald, citing an announcement by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor John Mangudya.
The change is expected to boost funding of tobacco using local money and is in line with the Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, which seeks to raise localization of tobacco funding to 70 percent by 2025 to keep more value in Zimbabwe.
Previously, merchants who failed to secure offshore financing were required to apply to the RBZ for authority to raise money on the local market.
Currently About 95 percent of Zimbabwean tobacco production is financed using offshore loans under contract farming. The offshore pre-financing arrangement means tobacco merchants bring into the country part of export proceeds in the form of inputs. After exports, the bulk of the export proceeds are used to pay offshore loans.
However, some stakeholders in the industry suspect the costs of inputs have in many cases been inflated, increasing foreign obligation and reducing export earnings.
Indigenous merchants welcomed the RZB move. “This makes life easier for local merchants,” an executive with a local tobacco company was quoted as saying. “Seeking a special dispensation from the central bank to source local funding created a regulatory impediment for local players to jump through.
Terrence Ngarwe, a Harare-based agriculture economist, said the new policy measure would see the country retaining more value from tobacco. “By having tobacco funded with local money, it means more money stays in the country,” said Ngarwe.
While Zimbabwe Farmers Union Executive Director Paul Zakariya applauded the new rules, he urged the industry to move away from contract farming and boost the domestic processing and manufacturing capacity.
“The financing mechanism through contract is not viable even if we are to fund tobacco using local money,” said Zakariya. “We need to alter the whole production environment to an extent that farmers can be self-financed and get loans from the banks and sell tobacco at the auction.”
Zimbabwe produced a record 295 million kg of tobacco this season, due to favorable weather conditions, improved agronomic practices and better funding packages by merchants, according to the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
August 14, 2023
Cautious Welcome for U.K. Insert Proposal
Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive
Smokers’ rights campaigners have given a cautious welcome to a U.K. government proposal to add pack inserts to tobacco products to encourage more smokers to quit.
On August 14, the British government launched a consultation on a proposal the plan, which calls for adding leaflets inside cigarette packs to encourage smokers to quit, telling them they could enhance their life expectance and save lots of money if they abandon smoking.
Tobacco-related harms are estimated to cost British taxpayers an estimated £18 billion every year, including over £1.72 billion in costs to the state-funded National Health Service.
SImon Clark
“If the inserts provide constructive information about quitting there is some merit in the idea,” said Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest.
“For example, inserting information about reduced risk products such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches would make a lot of sense.
“Targeting consumers with more anti-smoking messages, which are on the pack already, risks warning fatigue and won’t work.”
While welcoming the proposal in principle, Clark expressed concern about who would bear the expense of adding the inserts. “If the cost is passed on to consumers, who already pay punitive rates of taxation on tobacco, it may be counterproductive because more smokers will switch to illicit tobacco products that won’t have inserts added,” he said.
The pack inserts envisioned by the British government are already used in Canada, Australia and Israel, among other countries.
August 14, 2023
22nd Century Reports Second Quarter Results

Photo: chechotkin
22nd Century Group’ second quarter 2023 net revenues increased 62 percent to $23.4 million. Revenue from tobacco-related products was $8.1 million, reflecting the company’s transition away from low margin filtered cigar products to focus production and capacity on higher margin products, such as VLN and Pinnacle. Revenue from hemp/cannabis-related products was $15.4 million, as volumes continued to increase on share gains.
Gross profit for the second quarter of 2023 was minus $2.3 million as compared to $0.9 million in the prior year period. Gross profit from tobacco-related products was minus $1 million, reflecting a lower margin product mix.
Gross profit from hemp/cannabis-related products was minus $1.4 million, reflecting the final quarter of primarily ingredient trading activity due to a November 2022 plant fire. 22nd Century says it is restarting production of its ingredients at new facilities.

Our focus remains transformation from a primary emphasis on R&D to a fully commercial enterprise providing innovative harm reduction and consumer health and wellness products.
John Miller, interim CEO, 22nd Century
“Our focus in 2023 remains 22nd Century’s transformation from a primary emphasis on research and development to a fully commercial enterprise providing innovative harm reduction and consumer health and wellness products to key end markets,” said interim CEO John Miller in a statement.”
“We have now significantly advanced our commercialization plan for VLN sales across targeted states, 14 of which are now in place and two more states scheduled in September with a new drug store customer, a diversified hemp/cannabis ingredients and distribution business and a robust license and distribution business in both tobacco and hemp/cannabis.
“Following an initial delay in our commercial plans earlier this year, which are common on retail launches, we have now substantially expanded the availability of our FDA-authorized, reduced nicotine- content cigarettes VLN—a tobacco harm reduction product unlike any other.
“We are also implementing programs intended to reduce our operating costs by at least $15 million on an annualized basis.”
August 14, 2023
Eastern Boosts Production to Cigarette End Shortage
Egypt’s Eastern Co. will provide 50 million more cigarettes daily starting Aug. 13, 2023, to alleviate the prevailing cigarette crisis, reports Ahram Online.
The company will increase the number of cigarettes in the market to 150 million per day, up from 100 million cigarettes, Eastern Co.’s Managing Director and CEO Hany Aman was quoted as saying.
Tobacco prices have surged recently on the black market amid a shortage of supply in the market.
Aman said that by boosting supply in the market, the company aims to control unjustified price hikes and curb speculative practices by some traders, who began to stockpile cigarettes after they heard of a new cigarette taxation legislation.
The MD expected cigarette prices to return to normal within three to four weeks following the production increase.
Fakhry El-Fiqi MP, who heads the Planning and Budget Committee in the House of Representatives, recently said that the committee will discuss a new cigarette taxation law at the beginning of the fourth legislative session in October.
According to Eastern Co., Egyptians spent EGP17 billion ($550.15 million) cigarettes during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
August 12, 2023
Steve McGeough to Lead Übbs

Photo: Übbs
Nicotine pouch manufacturer Übbs has appointed Steve McGeough as general manager.
Previously head of retail at British American Tobacco, Steve brings considerable experience from within the nicotine space. During his time at BAT, McGeough transformed the retail and direct-to-consumer experience, boosting sales by 20 percent. In addition, McGeough led the launch of BAT’s Vuse and Velo brands across the U.K., underpinned by a global offline subscription proposition.
Prior to BAT, McGeough was retail director for Tesco Mobile where he helped to achieve double-digit revenue growth and enhance customer satisfaction.
As general manager for Übbs, Steve will drive distribution, accelerate the brand’s online presence, build awareness and focus on responsible growth.
“With over 25 years’ experience across retail, start-ups and product-led businesses, including significant time in the nicotine industry, Steve brings an impressive blend of experience that means he is perfectly positioned to help propel Übbs forward,” says Nigel Hardy director of Übbs parent company, RV Kharma.
“His experience at British American Tobacco working within the next generation products division where he achieved impressive sales growth and launched nicotine pouch products across the U.K. is a great grounding for what’s to come with Übbs.
“Steve shares our unwavering commitment to excellence, sustainability and ethical practices. We look forward to him taking the reins as we continue to grow.”
Founded in the U.K. in 2022, Übbs’ pouches are manufactured to global pharma standards in India.
August 11, 2023
Seed Sales Hint at Record Hectarage

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Zimbabwean seed sales suggest a record tobacco hectarage in the 2023-2024 growing season, reports The Herald.
Statistics released by the Tobacco Research Board (TRB) reveal that, by August 8, farmers had procured 847.21 kg of tobacco seed with potential to cover 169,442 ha.
The largest tobacco hectarage to date was recorded in 2019 when growers planted 146,000 ha. The final crop, livestock and fisheries assessment report shows that last year 131,656 ha were put under tobacco.
Zimbabwean tobacco growers had sold 294 million kg of tobacco worth $891 million by day 100 of the ongoing 2023 marketing season.
This is a 44 percent increase in volume and 43 percent rise in value compared to the same period last year.
The average yield this season has risen to over 2 tons per hectare from 1.7 tons per hectare the previous season.
As part of its Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, Zimbabwe seeks to create a $5 billion tobacco industry by 2025 through localization of tobacco funding, increased production and productivity, value addition and beneficiation.
August 10, 2023
Warning Against ‘Mimic Menthols’

Photo: Esser
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should choose the wording of its intended ban on menthol cigarettes carefully to prevent the emergence of substitute products, according to Maciej Goniewicz, a professor of oncology at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s department of health behavior.
A study carried out by Roswell Park revealed that several nonmenthol cigarette brands introduced in California after that state banned flavored cigarettes in December 2022 contain synthetic chemicals to mimic menthol’s cooling effects.
“Synthetic cooling chemicals that may cause sensations similar to menthol have been reported recently in various tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches,” said Goniewicz, who contributed to the research, in a statement. “This is the first study to discover that synthetic cooling chemicals were added to conventional cigarettes marketed after the implementation of statewide menthol restrictions.”
The researchers measured the content of menthol and 15 other cooling chemicals in the new non-menthol cigarettes sold in California and compared those concentrations to similar products with “menthol” labels available in New York State, where menthol cigarettes are not banned.
Among other things, they found that two non-menthol brands marketed to appeal to menthol smokers were available only in California, which according to the researchers suggests that these products are new to the market and marketed to fill the sales void created by the ban on menthol cigarettes.
With the exception of one variety, menthol was not detected in any cigarettes sold in California. However, while WS-3, a synthetic cooling chemical, was not found in any cigarettes sold in New York, the agent was detected in four types of cigarettes in California that included package descriptions implying a cooling effect.
The study results led Goniewicz to conclude that the wording the FDA uses in its regulation will be important. “Otherwise, if the law says simply, ‘You cannot use menthol,’ the manufacturers may do exactly what we found in California—they will use menthol substitutes, and the product will remain on the market,” he said.
August 10, 2023
Court Tosses Premium Cigar Regulations
Photo: Olena
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has vacated the Food and Drug Administration’s deeming regulations for premium cigars, reports Halfwheel.
As a result, the deeming regulations introduced by the agency in 2016 do not apply to cigars that meets all of the following criteria:
It is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf
It contains 100 percent leaf tobacco binder
It contains at least 50 percent long filler tobacco
It is handmade or hand rolled
It has no filter, nontobacco tip or nontobacco mouthpiece
It does not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco
It contains only tobacco, water and vegetable gum with no other ingredients or additives
It weighs less than 6 pounds per 1,000 units.
The lawsuit was filed by the Cigar Association of America, the Cigar Rights of America (CRA) and the Premium Cigar Association.
The case focused in part on the rulemaking process, which requires the FDA to inform the public about upcoming regulation and solicit feedback on those proposed rules.
Contrary to the FDA’s assertion when it announced its finalized rules in 2016, the agency received feedback, according to Judge Amit P. Mehta. Specifically, the CRA in a comment to the proposed rules cited a finding from an FDA-funded study indicating that cigar smokers do not have higher “all-cause” mortality rates than nonsmokers.
According to Halfwheel, the cigar industry is likely to ask the FDA to reimburse the user fees it has paid the agency, which the publication estimates at about $100 million per year for both premium and non-premium cigars.
The FDA still has the option to deem premium cigars as regulated tobacco products, but it must complete the process that it failed to complete properly from 2014 to 2016.
August 9, 2023
Malawi Earns $282.63 Million From Tobacco

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Malawi earned $282.62 million after selling more than 120 kg of tobacco during the 2023 tobacco marketing season, which ended Aug. 4, 2023, reports Malawi24.
According to Tobacco Commission Public Relations Officer Telephorus Chigwenembe, the average price this year was $2.35 per kg.
“It was even more exciting towards the end of the season when buyers offered record prices,” said Chigwenembe.
He went on to say that there were no serious market disruptions as was the case in the past.
Registration and licensing of farmers for the 2023/2024 growing season continues at Tobacco Commission offices in Mzuzu, Kasungu, Lilongwe and Limbe.
The Commission has encouraged farmers to grow more tobacco than they did in the 2022-2023 season.
August 8, 2023