Author: Taco Tuinstra

Mozambique Leaf Production Plunges

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The value of Mozambique’s tobacco production dropped 71.7 percent to MZN200 million ($3.13 million) year-on-year in the first six months of 2024, according to the Club of Mozambique. The organization did not provide a reason for the decline.
The revenues amounted to 2.7 percent of the target set for the whole year and 1 percent of Mozambique’s industrial output from January to June.
The government expects growers to cultivate 129,321 hectares and 81,223 tons of tobacco this year.
According to a 2023 World Health Organization report, Mozambique had the eighth largest tobacco-growing area in the world and the third largest tobacco-growing area in Africa, after Zimbabwe and Malawi.
Brazil, with a cultivation area of 357,230 hectares, and Mozambique are the only Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries nations mentioned in the WHO report.
August 29, 2024
Campaigners Vow to Fight Outdoor Ban

Photo: gzorgz
A leaked plan to drastically extend smoking restrictions in Britain to outdoor spaces has sparked outrage among activists and some politicians.
According to The Sun, ministers have been “plotting” to make beer gardens, outdoor restaurants and other open-air spaces smokefree. The proposed restrictions exempt private homes, along with large open spaces such as parks or streets.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “It’ll be the end of pubs.”
“Imposing nanny state regulation like this on pubs and restaurants would not only be wrong but economically damaging,” said Former Home Secretary Priti Patel.
“These are small businesses, run by hardworking people, that provide jobs up and down the country.”
Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ rights group Forest vowed to fight any attempt to extend smoking bans to outdoor areas.
“Smoking bans must be evidence based and there is no evidence that smoking in the open air is a significant threat to the health of nonsmokers,” he said.
“The indoor smoking ban did enormous damage to the pub industry. Extending the ban to beer gardens could force many more pubs to close.”
Accusing the ruling Labour party of using “bully state” tactics to force adults to quit smoking, Clark said, “If it’s true that the government intends to extend the smoking ban to a raft of outdoor areas, Britain will no longer be a nanny state.
“We will have crossed a line and become a bully state in which people are punished for the terrible crime of lighting a cigarette outside a pub or in a park.”
August 29, 2024
Law Firm Announces Vapor Symposium
Keller and Heckman will hold its nineth Annual E-Vapor and Tobacco Law Symposium Jan. 27-28, 2025, in Las Vegas, right before the Total Product Expo. This two-day seminar is designed to provide in-depth knowledge on legal, regulatory and scientific issues that are essential for tobacco, nicotine and CBD/hemp product manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and retailers.
Registration for this seminar, which will be held at the Hilton-Conrad Resorts World Las Vegas, will launch in September 2024.
August 29, 2024
Medical Group Urges Action Against Vaping
Photo:Mikhail Reschetnikov
The British Medical Association (BMA) is calling on the government to stop the growth of vaping in the U.K.
In a report titled Taking Our Breath Away: Why We Need Stronger Regulation of Vapes, the BMA sets out its blueprint for what legislation should include to tackle rising vape use, especially among children and young people. Recommendations include:
banning the commercial sale of all disposable vapes;
banning all nontobacco vape flavors;
prohibiting the use of all imagery, coloring and branding for both the packaging and vape device, similar to current restrictions on cigarettes;
further restrictions on all advertising and marketing, and ensuring vapes are kept behind the counter and not on display in shops and retail outlets; and
government education campaigns for the public on the dangers of vapes to reduce appeal, especially among children and young people.
While the BMA recognizes that vapes can be a useful tool in helping some people to stop smoking cigarettes, the organization stresses that they offer a less dangerous rather than a risk-free alternative. “Vaping can lead to nicotine addiction, with nicotine having the potential to cause health problems such as high blood pressure and increased risk of COPD,” the BMA wrote in a statement. “Further, some e-cigarettes have been found to contain other harmful substances such as lead.”
Vaping industry representatives cautioned that the proposed measures could have unintended consequences.
“The UKVIA [U.K. Vaping Industry Association] agrees that stronger measures are needed to cut off the supply of youth vaping and illicit products; however, actions laid out in this report would sooner supercharge the black market and push the nation’s smoke-free ambitions further out of reach by deterring adult smokers from making the switch and driving current vapers into the hands of underground sellers or back to cigarettes,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, in a statement.
“The BMA undersells the quitting power of vapes when it says the reduced-risk alternative ‘can be useful in helping some people to stop smoking.’ The latest data from leading public health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) U.K. found more than half of ex-smokers in Great Britain who quit in the past five years used a vape in their last attempt—ASH also reports that current and ever use of vapes among 11[-year-olds to] 17-year-olds has decreased since last year.”
August 28, 2024
UKVIA Warns Against ‘Spice’ Vapes

Photo: fedorovacz
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has cautioned consumers about an increase in illegal “Spice vapes” and called for urgent government action to protect young people.
The warning follows reports of people misusing “open” vape devices—which allow consumers to add e-liquid—to deliver synthetic cannabinoids such as Spice and the psychoactive chemical THC, which is found in cannabis. Spice is a nickname for a substance containing one or more synthetic cannabinoids.
UKVIA stated that the regulated nicotine vape industry is in no way connected with the trend of using open vape devices as a delivery mechanism for illegal drugs.
“Consumers can feel confident that when they buy regulated products from any reputable vape supplier, that they will be getting nicotine vapes which are designed to help them transition from cigarettes,” said UKVIA Director General John Dunne in a statement.
“I am worried, however, that there are vape devices available from unofficial sources which may contain illegal drugs and that those who buy them may have no idea what is contained in these products.”
According to Office for Health Improvement & Disparities statistics, of the 12,418 young people under 18 in contact with alcohol and drug services between April 2022 and March 2023, cannabis was the most common substance (87 percent) for which young people sought treatment. While 10,837 young people reported having a problem with cannabis only 1,737 said they had a problem with nicotine.
“We need the government to step on now with a nationwide education campaign in traditional and social media to highlight the dangers of obtaining vape devices from unofficial sources and explaining the differences between legal and illegal vape products,” said Dunne.
“Unless a clear distinction is made between the regulated vape market supplying adult smokers with products which are 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes and the unofficial supply of illegal products, then people will become wary of all vapes with the potential to drive smoking rates back up again.”
August 28, 2024
Pyxus Retires Debt

Photo: Pyxus Internationall
Pyxus International has retired the remaining $20.4 million aggregate principal amount of its 10 percent senior secured notes due 2024 at maturity. This payment, along with the company’s recently completed discounted repurchases under a privately negotiated agreement with Monarch Alternative Capital of its 8.50 percent senior secured notes and its senior secured Pyxus term loans both due in 2027, completes the planned elimination of $142.9 million of long-term debt from Pyxus’ capital structure, as announced March 25, 2024.
“We are pleased our sustained, disciplined approach to working capital management has resulted in the completion of our planned elimination of approximately a quarter of our long-term debt,” said Pyxus President and CEO Pieter Sikkel in a statement.
“These efforts have enabled us to steadily strengthen our business, improve our balance sheet and reinforce our position in the global marketplace. We remain focused on reducing our borrowing costs and believe the ongoing improvement in our credit profile positions us to decrease financing costs through our global lending partners, as well as evaluate a range of opportunities to deliver a more cost-effective capital structure.”
The retired notes are the remainder of an original $280.8 million principal amount of 10 percent Senior Secured Notes due 2024 that were issued in 2020. As part of the company’s debt exchange transactions completed in February 2023, it successfully exchanged 92.7 percent of the then-outstanding principal amount of those notes for its 8.50 percent senior secured notes due Dec. 31, 2027.
August 28, 2024
Smoking at Record Low

U.S. cigarette smoking has dropped to an all-time low of 11 percent, according to a new Gallup poll. Smoking is even less common in young Americans, with 6 percent of people under 30 saying they smoke.
“The U.S. is on the verge of having a smoke-free Gen Z generation, yet instead of celebrating, vaping is under attack,” said Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers’ Alliance in a statement. “This doesn’t make any sense. The latest smoking rates clearly show that the myth of vaping being a gateway to smoking needs to be put to rest. Vaping is not a gateway to smoking; it’s a gateway away from smoking. Harm reduction works, even though politicians are making it harder for smokers to switch. It’s time to wake up!”
Low smoking rates may be a result of decades of scientific data and warnings that the products are dangerous to use, according to a New York Post article. About 80 percent of American adults who were surveyed said that cigarettes are “very harmful” compared to 57 percent of respondents who said that e-cigarettes are “very harmful.”
Most respondents also said chewing tobacco is “very harmful,” but few said the same for cigars, pipes or nicotine pouches, though seven out of 10 Americans believe the products are “somewhat harmful.”
Smokers are also less inclined than nonsmokers to say that cigarettes are harmful; 80 percent of nonsmokers said cigarettes are harmful while 58 percent of cigarette smokers said the products are harmful. In comparison, 63 percent of vapers said e-cigarettes are harmful while 79 percent of nonvapers said e-cigarettes are harmful.

August 28, 2024
Helme Tobacco Returns

Photo: Burtsc
Swisher announced a rebrand of its smokeless tobacco portfolio with the return of the historic Helme Tobacco Co.
The company’s smokeless division previously fell under the Fat Lip Brands umbrella and comprises 24 individual brands, including Kayak moist snuff tobacco, Starr loose leaf chew tobacco and Navy dry snuff.
The Helme Tobacco Co. name traces its roots back to the 1880s and founder George W. Helme, who established the snuff and chewing tobacco company in Helmetta, New Jersey, USA. By 1925, Helme was reportedly the world’s largest snuff maker. The Helme Tobacco Co. and its products became part of the Swisher family of products and brands in 1986. Swisher later branded its smokeless tobacco portfolio under Fat Lip Brands and now rebrands that portfolio under the Helme name.
While Swisher’s corporate headquarters is based in Jacksonville, Florida, the Helme Tobacco Co. smokeless division is located in Wheeling, West Virginia.
“This year is a historic one for Swisher as we celebrate 100 years of continuous operations in Jacksonville, Florida. We believe now is the perfect time to reintroduce this historic and prominent smokeless tobacco name to adult consumers,” said Swisher President and CEO Neil Kiely. “The Helme name is synonymous with high-quality products and reflects the unwavering commitment of the Wheeling, West Virginia team.”
The following brands will now fall under the Helme Tobacco Co. name:
Kayak, Creek and Gold River moist snuff tobacco; Starr, Bowie, Chattanooga Chew, Lancaster and Mailpouch chewing tobacco; and Buttercup, Checkerberry, Dixie Sweet, Honey Bee, Lorillard, Navy, Railroad Mills, Ralphs, Society, Square, Starr, Strawberry, Superior, Three Thistle, Tops and Wild Cherry dry snuff.
August 27, 2024
ITC Judge Urges Njoy Ban

Photo: JHVEPhoto
An administrative law judge (AJL) of the International Trade Commission (ITC) has recommended a ban on importing Njoy Ace products into the United States following a patent-infringement claim filed by Juul Labs.
Ace is the first pod-based vapor product and the only pod-based menthol vapor product authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as appropriate for the protection of public health. According to Njoy parent company Altria Group, an exclusion order banning the importation of Ace would severely limit FDA-authorized choices for adults and undermine public health.
“Altria and NJOY respectfully disagree with the ALJ’s initial determination, and Njoy looks forward to presenting its position to the full ITC, which is expected to issue a final decision by December 23, 2024,” Altria Group wrote in a statement.
In August 2023, Njoy filed a similar, independent patent infringement complaint against Juul with the ITC seeking a ban on the importation and sale of Juul products in the U.S. A hearing before the ALJ was held in June 2024, and an initial determination is expected in late September. A positive outcome in this case would not preclude an exclusion order against Njoy Ace from taking effect.
“We continue to work to bring this issue to resolution,” Altria wrote in its statement. “The parties have engaged with a mediator to attempt to negotiate a resolution of these disputes. In addition, Njoy recently filed substantial equivalence (SE) exemption requests with the FDA to allow Njoy to market an already-developed Ace product with minor modifications that we believe avoid three of the four Juul patent claims at issue in the case.”
August 27, 2024
JT to Process HTP Components in Trier

The products prepared in Trier will be finalized at a JTI factory in Poland (pictured) Photo: JTI
Japan Tobacco International is investing about €30 million in its Trier, Germany, factory, reports Tagesschau.
The company plans to build a new facility that will produce components for heated-tobacco sticks. According to JTI, these products will be prepared in Trier and then integrated into heated tobacco products at a JTI plant in Poland.
JTI-Trier Plant Manager Peter Kilburg views the investment as a sign of trust in the factory and its workforce.
According to the company, Trier is the only JTI plant worldwide to establish such a facility. It is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2026.
The Trier factory employs about 1,800 people.
August 26, 2024