Author: Taco Tuinstra

  • Strom Nicotine Pouch Debuts in U.K.

    Strom Nicotine Pouch Debuts in U.K.

    Photo: Andrii

    Scandinavian Tobacco Group has launched its Strom nicotine pouch in the U.K., reports Convenience Store.

    Strom will be available in three flavors—fresh mint, minty orange and juicy berry—to retailers across Manchester for a six-month trial period between October and March before being rolled out to other cities across the U.K. throughout 2023 and beyond.

    “Nicotine pouch sales are really gathering pace, and that’s why we’re really excited to pilot our Strom brand in Manchester before rolling out the product to the rest of the U.K.,” said Alastair Williams, STG’s U.K. country director. “Retailers would be forgiven for thinking that the nicotine pouch category is already quite crowded, but we’re coming to the market with something more authentic, premium and sophisticated than what is already out there.

    “Strom offers a prolonged taste delivery, which enables an extended flavor sensation for your mouth and throat as well as providing an equal nicotine release for a consistent and smooth experience. We’re also excited to be putting a huge marketing spend behind our regional ad campaign to raise consumer awareness and drive sales.”

  • Record Seizure of Illegal Cigarettes at Hull Port

    Record Seizure of Illegal Cigarettes at Hull Port

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    British Customs authorities reported the largest-ever seizure of illegal tobacco in the United Kingdom when a sniffer dog found 99 million illicit cigarettes in the Port of Hull, reports BBC News.

    The illegal products were in eight shipping containers said to have been shipped through the United Arab Emirates. The cigarettes were worth about £44 million ($48.56 million) in unpaid taxes, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

    Import documents falsely labeled the shipping containers as carrying birchwood logs.

    “This is the single largest seizure of cigarettes ever made at a U.K. port,” said Anthony Usher, deputy director of HMRC’s fraud investigation service. “Our streets would have been flooded with them had they not been discovered.

    “Cheap cigarettes come at a cost as they often fund organized crime and other illegal activity that causes real harm to our communities, such as drugs, guns and human trafficking.”

  • Customs Chief Quits Over Cigarette Theft

    Customs Chief Quits Over Cigarette Theft

    Photo: Evan Novostro

    Rade Milosevic, head of Montenegro’s Customs Office, resigned after an investigation launched by the Special State Prosecution into the tobacco theft in the town of Niksic, reports Balkan Insight.

    Milosevic was questioned by police after €1 million ($971,805) worth of tobacco was stolen from a factory in Niksic, where it was supposed to be destroyed.

    “I decided to take this action in order to relieve the government, the Customs Office and myself personally of the pressure. I am convinced that my work did not violate the law, but the media and a political hunt were aimed at discrediting me,” Milosevic said.

    “It [the hunt] was designed and instructed by certain interest groups threatened by my conscientious and professional work,” he added.

    The Special State Prosecutor’s Office stated that Customs officials, without adequate security measures, took over a truck of cigarettes intended for destruction. The truck never made it to its destination at the Mai-rai factory. Police later found the truck hidden in Podgorica, the capital. Customs officers Elvir Adrovic and Milutin Pejovic were arrested.

    “I would be very unpleasantly surprised if Milosevic made this kind of oversight,” said outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic. “He explained to me how the system works, but the authorities will investigate whether there is anything else there.”

    Opposition and civic organizations called for Milosevic’s dismissal, but Abazovic urged prosecution to fully investigate the matter first.

    Earlier this year, Abozovic suggested tobacco smuggling groups contributed to the no-confidence vote that brought him down in mid-August.

  • Karnataka Gears up for Selling Season

    Karnataka Gears up for Selling Season

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Karnataka will start auctioning its flue-cured Virginia tobacco crop in October 2022, the Tobacco Board of India announced.

    The board expects a crop of approximately 64 million kg of good quality with a comparatively high share of bright grades.

    In a letter to customers, the Tobacco Board said it is promoting various sustainable tobacco production practices, including the promotion of integrated pest management, natural farming practices, NTRM-free tobacco production, fuel conservation measures and tree planting programs to ensure product integrity and compliance with buyer requirements.

    The Tobacco Board urged leaf buyers to communicate their requirements well in advance.

    “I would request you to plan your requirements for the 2022–23 Karnataka crop well in advance for timely liquidation of the produce and early conclusion of auction sales, thereby avoiding leaf quality deterioration as well as weight loss, which could be beneficial to the farmers as well as the traders,” wrote Tobacco Board Executive Director A. Sridhar Babu.

  • VTA Questions FDA’s Youth Vaping Analysis

    VTA Questions FDA’s Youth Vaping Analysis

    Tony Abboud (Photo: Taco Tuinstra)

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration misrepresents the latest data on youth vaping, according to Vapor Technology Association (VTA) Executive Director Tony Abboud.

    On Oct. 6, the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) on e-cigarette use among U.S. youth.

    “The FDA represents the NYTS data to show that youth vaping ‘remains high,’ yet a deeper dive into the data show[s] only a small uptick in experimental or infrequent use while regular use remains flat or is slightly down,” said Abboud in a statement.

    Abboud notes that since 2019, according to the CDC, the number of high school students who have tried vaping (one time in the last 30 days) has dropped by 50 percent, and the number of middle school students has plummeted by 70 percent. During that same time period, the number of high school students who “frequently” vape dropped by 37 percent, and the number of middle school students dropped by 65 percent.

    “FDA’s near single-minded focus on youth who experiment with vaping versus those who are frequent users ignores what clearly is a consistent trend of youth away from vaping products. Rather than focusing on removing products from the market in an attempt to impact youth vaping, the FDA should instead support common sense regulatory reforms that would better restrict access to products instead,” said Abboud. “Simply removing products from the market is not the answer when those products are also proven to help adult smokers quit.”

    According to Abboud, it is well documented that flavored vapor products help adult smokers switch to less harmful vaping and “study after study after study” has confirmed the data. Since 2010, when e-cigarettes became widely available in the U.S., smoking rates have declined by more than half, he noted.

    “Tobacco use is down. Youth vaping is down. These are both good things and are not in dispute. Unfortunately, there are still 40 million Americans addicted to cigarettes,” Abboud said. “Every year, 500,000 die from smoking-related diseases and yet less than 3 percent of our kids are using vapes on a regular basis. The FDA’s failure to acknowledge this reality ignores the role vaping plays in harm reduction and smoking cessation and puts more lives at risk.”

  • The Evolution of Sustainability

    The Evolution of Sustainability

    Photo: Crhis Ferenzi Photography

    Panel Discussion: The Evolution of Sustainability

    The “pace of change is accelerating” for environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, which requires companies to invest in policies and actions that encourage responsible behavior. “ESG is a driver of choice,” a GTNF speaker said.

    Due to the nature of its business, tobacco companies can make the greatest ESG gains by reducing the health impact of their products. Moving to a smoke-free future is the single best thing the industry can do in order to maintain its license to operate and create long-term sustainability. “We think that’s right for our consumers,” said a representative of a leading tobacco firm. “We believe it’s right for our employees. We believe it’s right for society broadly.”

    Innovation creates value. Sustainability creates value. And those two things are not in conflict, according to one speaker. They are instead reinforcing ideas. Companies cannot innovate alone. They need to innovate alongside their consumer base. The speakers agreed that everyone needs to be involved in innovation with a shared goal of sustainability.

    “We believe [one way] we can create positive change is to address the harm of our products. And so that gets more to our vision, which is moving beyond smoking,” a speaker noted, adding that some of the challenges in ESG are knowing what expectations are, especially from consumers and shareholders. “You take the time to understand what they expect, you identify where are the areas of your business where you can align those expectations into your business practices and then measure and communicate the progress that you’re making.”

    ESG used to exist on an island. Today, it’s a core part of how leadership drives the long-term success of a business. The speakers noted that changes brought about through ESG initiatives will determine the long-term success of companies. A company must address its “most pressing issues” that stakeholders care about.

    “We talk about transforming people’s lives so that together we can grow better. It’s frankly something that all our employees around the world can really get behind. But it’s not just the talk; it’s the walk, right?” a speaker asked. “It’s measuring what you have and setting real targets of what we want to achieve and reporting on those in a very public way. I think this industry is way too shy about talking about some of the positive achievements that it’s had and it’s made and continues to make around the globe.”

    The best practice is to intertwine sustainability and business strategies—where the board and the executive team are acting as the coaches of the company’s sustainability goals. “It is about being standardized, being transparent, basing your numbers on actual science and facts, and being [able to implement these policies throughout] the full value chain,” one speaker explained. “One of the key takeaways is that perhaps ESG/sustainability efforts at some point were seen as optional. But the reality is that this is not the case now. It is no longer optional. And I think we’re all committed to trying to do the right thing.”

    ESG can be driven by governmental regulation too. Those regulations can become game changers for companies, according to several speakers. For example, the European Union has launched the “European Standards for Sustainability Report.” The report essentially outlines what companies have done over the past 20 years to move toward a more sustainable future. The report also shows that ESG isn’t easy. It also offers a potential blueprint for companies struggling for innovative sustainability ideas.

    “[The meaning of] ultimate sustainability is really sort of combatting climate change and decreasing emissions, saving water … minimizing pollution and waste, looking at diversity and quantity, having zero corruption, looking at almost everything from tax clarity to human rights and supply chains,” one speaker said. “It’s a lot of work and you don’t want to invest in that work if you’re not going to get the value to actually build a more successful, sustainable company.”

    In the end, sustainability, ESG and tobacco harm reduction go hand in hand. One speaker explained it as a three-legged stool. When you think about the products themselves, you have to have products that are satisfactory to the adult tobacco consumer. It’s a product that’s going to be commercially successful. Consumers will enjoy it, and they will transition to authorized smoke-free products.

    “We also know that there are consumers who want to entirely quit using tobacco products, and so we think supporting adult tobacco consumers who have made the decision to quit [and are] able to do so successfully is also an important element of harm reduction.”

    “And then we absolutely have to make sure that underage use is not an issue,” one speaker explained. “We’ve heard the conversation about innovative reduced-risk products cannot be an offramp for the adult tobacco consumer and an on-ramp for youth, and so there has to continue to be a lot of attention to those three pillars of the stool to make sure that underage use [is limited], especially as we start thinking about new-to-market products.”

  • CRP to Build $80 million Plant in Harare

    CRP to Build $80 million Plant in Harare

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Cut Rag Processors plans to build an $80 million cigarette factory in Harare, Zimbabwe, reports The Sunday Mail, citing sources familiar with the project.

    The company, which is one of the country’s largest exporters of cut rag and manufactures the Remington Gold cigarette brand, has already started clearing 60,000 square meters of land in the Lochinvar industrial area.

    The factory will have both a primary department for the production of cut rag and a secondary department for the manufacture of cigarettes, an unnamed source told The Sunday Mail.

    While confirming the construction of the new facility, Cut Rag Processors Managing Director Nyasha Chinhara declined to provide details, citing “finalization of confidential internal processes.”

    The project fits with Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Value Chain Transformation Plan, which aims to extract more value from the tobacco business.

    The world’s sixth largest producer of leaf tobacco, Zimbabwe currently captures only a fraction of the trade’s value. The government aims to unlock $5 billion in export revenue by 2025.

    Net foreign currency inflows from tobacco stood at $45.7 million in 2020. About 98 percent of tobacco produced in Zimbabwe is exported in green (semi-processed) form by big tobacco merchants.

    Zimbabwe has three processing facilities owned by Zimbabwe Leaf Tobacco, Tobacco Processors Zimbabwe and Mashonaland Tobacco Co.

    Cut Rag Processors was formed in February 2000 as the first independent cut rag production facility in Zimbabwe servicing both the domestic and export markets.

    The establishment of the company paved the way for the merger of BAT and Rothmans in 2000. Previously, the Competition and Tariff Commission had rejected the merger out of concern that the merged entity would create a monopoly.

    Between 2012 and 2014, Cut Rag Processors closed its cigarette line. A year later, the company decided to exit the entire tobacco business. It returned to production after its owner, Gold Leaf, sold the business to new shareholders in 2019.

    Encouraged by the government’s plan to boost Zimbabwe’s tobacco earnings, the new investor injected capital into the manufacturing business.

  • Cuba Plots Tobacco Course Post-Hurricane

    Cuba Plots Tobacco Course Post-Hurricane

    Photo: Sabino Parente

    Tabacuba Business Group of Cuba is drawing up new strategies for tobacco output in the 2022–2023 harvest following the destruction of Hurricane Ian, reports Prensa Latina.

    Marino Murillo, president of Tabacuba, considered the Pinar del Rio province as decisive in the effort. 

    All tobacco that was protected in natural curing houses and warehouses will be collected; 33,000 tons of the existing 41,000 tons are in this province, which reported 80 percent infrastructure destruction.

    Anywhere from 15,000 tons to 17,000 tons of tobacco will be taken to other provinces, and seedbed irrigation will be immediately resumed.

    Warehouses and natural curing houses that are in good condition will be stripped of available materials because the country is deficient in wood, according to Murillo.

    Tobacco growers in Pinar del Rio kept 650 tons of covered tobacco from being damaged with their early actions before the hurricane.

    According to Murillo, Cuba is still planning on planting tobacco, which covers 15,000 ha nationwide, but the area to be used in Pinar del Rio has not yet been defined and will depend on possible curing houses that can be rebuilt. 

  • Campaign for Harm Reduction in Strasbourg

    Campaign for Harm Reduction in Strasbourg

    Photo: WVA

    As a kickoff for the #BackVapingBeatSmoking campaign, representatives of the World Vapers Alliance (WVA) presented Members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg with a “Vaping Products Directive” to show how e-cigarettes need to be treated to fulfill their potential as tobacco harm reduction tools.

    The campaign launches as European legislators review the Tobacco Products Directive. Responding to the EU Commission’s public call for evidence, the WVA has spoken out against flavor bans and excessive regulation.

    “By backing vaping, we can beat smoking and save 19 million lives with sensible regulation,” said Michael Landl, director of the WVA. “The EU call for evidence has seen a record number of 24,000 responses, showing that consumers want to embrace tobacco harm reduction, and it happens that vaping has been proven one of the most successful so far.

    “The EU needs to put an end to current discussions about flavor bans, and vaping must be kept affordable and accessible. It is time for the EU to fully endorse tobacco harm reduction and to make vaping a centerpiece of it.”

    The #BackVapingBeatSmoking campaign launched in Strasbourg, France, with a “Don’t Let 19 Million Lives Fall” protest art installation and will spread to 10 cities in six countries during October 2022 through November 2022.

    “We will host community events and protests in France, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal and Belgium to draw attention to one of the most crucial pieces of legislation for the future of vaping. It is time for politicians to listen to consumers and science,” said Landl in a statement.

    The WVA has also launched a petition against harmful vaping regulation, such as flavor bans or high taxation on vaping products. The signatures will be delivered to Members of the European Parliament at the end of the tour in November.

     

  • Shopkeepers up in Arms Over Tobacco Bill

    Shopkeepers up in Arms Over Tobacco Bill

    Photo: ink drop

    Bangladesh’s proposal to require all tobacco businesses to obtain licenses will adversely impact the livelihoods of small traders and hurt government revenue, according to critics.

    Lawmakers are currently reviewing a draft law that would ban tobacco sales from makeshift shops, outlaw product displays and prohibit the sale of single cigarettes, a common practice in many low-income countries.

    Muhammad Helal Uddin, president of the Bangladesh Shop Owners Association, insisted licenses should be required only for manufacturers and warned that shopkeepers would take to the streets if the bill became law.

    Meanwhile, economists predicted that the proposal would deprive the government of significant tax earnings at a time of economic hardship.

    “The tobacco sector is the largest contributor to VAT income. Any abrupt decision without the consultation of the revenue board would surely backfire and nosedive revenue income,” an unnamed National Board of Revenue official was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.

    The National Board of Revenue earned nearly BDT300 billion ($2.91 billion) from cigarette taxes in fiscal 2021–2022—equivalent to approximately 10 percent of Bangladesh’s total revenue income.

    Ahsan H. Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute, cautioned that the draft law would boost the illegal trade in tobacco products and drive up sales of low-cost brands at the expense of higher priced varieties.

    “Since these vendors will not get the supply of top brands produced by the multinational tobacco companies, they will sell low-quality brands of the local companies that are least interested in complying with rules and regulations,” said Mansur.

    Mansur advised government to instead focus on raising awareness of the health risks of tobacco consumption.  

    According to Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 44 percent of Bangladeshis used tobacco in 2009. Through a range of anti-tobacco measures, the government brought down this number to 34 percent in 2017. If the trend continues, the smoking rate could dip below 5 percent over the next 15 years to 20 years, according to Mansur.