Author: Taco Tuinstra

Brazilian Flood Damage Assessed

Photo: SindiTabaco
The floods that hit Rio Grande do Sul in early May have done significant damage to the Brazilian state’s tobacco-growing sector, according to a survey conducted by the Interstate Tobacco Industry Union (SindiTabaco) and its associate companies.
In all, the floods impacted 1,929 rural properties in 75 municipalities covered by the survey. Candelaria municipality was worst impacted, with 214 tobacco farmers suffering losses. Other heavily impacted municipalities included Agudo (136 affected farmers), Barros Cassal (132) and Venancio Aires (116).
In terms of monetary impact, Venancio Aires was most impacted, with the industry suffering a loss of BRL18.3 million ($3.37 million). Other hard-hit municipalities included Candelaria (BRL16.52 million in losses), Agudo (BRL6.35 million) and Ibarama (BRL5.96 million).

We are confident that, in spite of this tragedy, the production of tobacco in the affected areas should remain close to the projections estimated for the 2024–2025 growing season
Iro Schuenke, president, SindiTabaco
The survey also demonstrated that 96 percent of the affected farmers intend to continue producing tobacco. “We need to provide the conditions that make it possible for them to carry on with their activities in the upcoming crop year and, within this context, the associate companies have already replaced the necessary inputs to restore the 2,070 seedbeds of lost seedlings, an investment that amounts to approximately BRL1.6 million,” said SindiTabaco President Iro Schuenke during a meeting with representatives of tobacco growers’ association Afubra, the Federation of Agricultural Workers and the Rio Grande do Sul State Federation of Agriculture.
“We are confident that, in spite of this tragedy, the production of tobacco in the affected areas should remain close to the projections estimated for the 2024–2025 growing season.”
While the industry and the tobacco farmers’ representatives are doing their best to minimize losses, they will require public support to rebuild curing barns and access credit lines, according to Schuenke, who noted that many tobacco farmers also produce food crops.
June 24, 2024
Health Ministers Debate EU-wide Flavor Ban

EU health ministers on June 21 discussed proposals to restrict flavors in consumer nicotine products, such as vapes and nicotine pouches.
The EU Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council will consider proposals from Latvia and Denmark to support an EU-wide flavor ban and a crackdown on cross-border sales, among other recommendations.
If the health ministers reach consensus support for these proposals, the next step would be to ask the European Commission to introduce draft legislation, which would eventually be voted on by the council and the European Parliament, according to Vaping360.
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Slovenia already ban vape flavors. Spain recently completed a public consultation on a proposed flavor ban while Latvia reportedly is in the process of introducing flavor restrictions.
The Tobacco Products Directive allows the member states to set their own rules for flavors. The Latvian proposal asserts that individual bans don’t work due to cross-border sales, among other factors.
Vaping activists have urged the EU to keep e-cigarette flavors legal.
“By supporting a flavor ban, EU health ministers would push millions of adults back to smoking or into the black market, endangering lives and ignoring scientific evidence. A flavor ban would be a huge step backward for public health and harm reduction,” said Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, in a statement.
“Scientific research consistently shows that flavors play a crucial role in helping smokers quit. The endorsement of the flavor ban ignores those findings and the clear will of the people, opting instead for a policy that will cause more harm than good. The World Vapers’ Alliance will continue fighting for reasonable, evidence-based policies that truly protect public health.”
June 24, 2024
BAT to Introduce Vape Vending Machines

Photo: evannovostro
BAT plans to introduce vape and nicotine pouch vending machines in pubs in the U.K., according to Better Retailing.
The company is hiring at least 12 representatives to target on-trade establishments with the aim of “securing new locations for vending machine and other business development solutions to ultimately increase sellout of specific BAT-related products.”
Areas being targeted include Basingstoke, Birmingham, Bury St. Edmunds, Cambridge, Coventry, Crawley, Edinburgh, Exeter, Maidstone, Reading, Royal Tunbridge and Sevenoaks.
Six-month trial contracts are set to start on June 24 “with ambition to extend into 2025 and beyond.”
“BAT U.K. is excited to be working on a project to sell our Vuse and Velo brands via age-gated vending machines,” said a BAT spokesperson. “At BAT, our purpose is bold: to build A Better Tomorrow. We will do this by reducing the health impact of our business, including by reaching our adult consumers where they use our alternative nicotine products. Vending machines represent an exciting opportunity to further deliver on our purpose.”
In response to concerns about underage use, BAT stated that their “machines will use best-in-class age verification to ensure that this essential principle is maintained.”
June 20, 2024
‘Trading Standards Underfunded’

Image: doethion
Trading Standards, the agency tasked with enforcing U.K. consumer protection laws and fair trading practices, needs more money to enforce the country’s vape legislation, according to an analysis commissioned by the Association of Convenience Stores.
The study found that the agency needs £168.34 million ($213.45 million) over five years to properly carry out its responsibilities. This figure represents a near 30 percent increase in net budgets for Trading Standards and takes into consideration the cost of enforcement officers, training, detection dogs, legal fees and product disposal.
The U.K. government previously committed to a £30 million annual enforcement top-up; however, it appears only one-third of the funding boost would have actually been assigned to Trading Standards, according to the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA).
“The ACS-commissioned analysis shows that a huge funding boost is needed if we are to rain down on illegal vape sellers with the full force of the nation’s dedicated, but under-resourced, Trading Standards officers—a cost that the U.K. government has yet failed to meet but one that could be covered by the sector’s comprehensive licensing framework,” said UKVIA Director General John Dunne in a statement.
“It’s rare for an industry to advocate for its own regulation, but we have and will continue to call on the government to introduce a vape licensing scheme because it is what is needed to back effective enforcement and to usher in a new age of accountability for our sector.”
June 20, 2024
Cigarette Smuggling Impeding Gaza Aid

Image: Robert
Restrictions on imports of nonessential goods into Gaza have turbocharged cigarette smuggling, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Aid trucks and storage depots have become targets for Palestinian smugglers seeking to retrieve illicit smokes stashed inside shipments by their accomplices, say U.N. and Israeli officials. Other local criminals are also attacking vehicles they suspect have cigarettes hidden somewhere on board, they say.
Cigarette prices have soared since Israel limited imports into Gaza to essential goods—which don’t include cigarettes—after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. Cigarettes sell for as much as $25 apiece in isolated Gaza.
Criminal attacks on aid convoys have reportedly become so severe that over a thousand truckloads of aid have been left sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel.
A UN official described cigarettes as “the new gold” in Gaza.
June 20, 2024
Romania Bans E-cig and Pouch Advertising

Photo: xpable
Romania’s Chamber of Deputies adopted a bill banning advertising of electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches this week, reports Romania Insider.
“It is prohibited to explicitly advertise tobacco products, electronic cigarettes, including vape types, products intended for inhalation without burning from tobacco substitutes, electronic devices for heating tobacco, and products intended for inhalation without burning from tobacco substitutes as well as nicotine pouches for oral use (pouches) broadcast within radio and television programs and on public transport tickets,” the bill states.
The bill also bans advertising for these products within educational institutions and healthcare facilities or within 200 meters of their entrances. Advertising is also banned in publications primarily intended for minors and in theaters before, during and after performances intended for minors. Ads are banned that target minors, depict minors consuming these products, suggest these products have therapeutic properties or have a stimulating, sedative effect or can solve personal problems, give a negative image of abstinence or do not contain warning inscriptions in Romanian.
June 19, 2024
NGO Debates Smoking Cessation

Photo: Global Action to End Smoking
Healthy Initiatives, a nongovernmental organization, convened an international forum and luncheon in Warsaw, Poland, this week to discuss past successes in smoking cessation and how they may inform future challenges. Participants included policy experts from Georgia and Ukraine.
“We must learn to meet individuals who smoke where they are on their cessation journeys and to understand why they are unable to quit with the tools at their disposal,” said Cliff Douglas, president and CEO of Global Action to End Smoking. “If we continue to push the same approach from two decades ago, we will fail to serve those who continue to smoke and whose lives are being disrupted by war,” he said, referring to the war in Ukraine.
“Tobacco control regulations and restrictions in low-[income] and middle-income countries should follow a risk-proportionate approach so that those smokers who are not able to quit smoking combustible cigarettes will have access to objective and scientifically proven information,” said Andre Urushadze, a health policy expert and former minister of health of Georgia. “It is important to ensure the possibility of proper communication as opposed to the informational chaos and many misleading facts.”
“We should always strive for saving more lives and helping people to succeed in making healthier choices, especially now when the region is torn by the war and humanitarian crisis, the largest since WWII, and people’s priorities have changed,” said Nataliya Toropova, founder of Healthy Initiatives. “It is our task to keep up the health issues high up on the agenda and tackle smoking as a No. 1 risk factor for noncommunicable diseases. With the help of effective smoking cessation programs and education campaigns, we hope to help people who smoke quit, ultimately making the region smoke-free.”
June 19, 2024
Pyxus Emission Targets Validated

Photo: chaylek
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has approved Pyxus International’s near-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets.
As part of the in-depth review and approval process, the SBTi classified Pyxus’ scope 1 and 2 near-term target as in line with a 1.5 degrees Celsius trajectory—a pathway to limit the warming of Earth’s average surface temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels—consistent with the Paris Agreement. SBTi also evaluated and approved the company’s scope 3 near-term target.
By 2030, Pyxus aims to reduce its direct (scope 1) and indirect (scope 2) emissions by 42 percent compared to its 2020 base year. It has also committed to the reduction of its indirect value chain-related emissions from purchased goods and services (scope 3) by 25 percent within the same timeframe.
“The SBTi’s approval of our science-based emissions reduction targets is a significant milestone for the Company and further confirms our commitment to and the validity of our approach to GHG reduction,” said Pyxus President and CEO Pieter Sikkel in a statement.
“Since our base year, we have reported a 9 percent decrease in our absolute emissions—largely attributable to the utilization of alternative fuel sources—and we will continue to implement improvements that generate operational efficiencies, mitigate risks and reduce our environmental impact going forward.”
The SBTi is a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature that provides companies with a clear pathway to set science-based targets and align emissions reduction efforts with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
June 18, 2024
PMI Suspends Zyn Sales Due to DC Probe

Photo: Swedish MAtch
Philip Morris International halted sales of Zyn nicotine pouches on its U.S. website as Washington, D.C., officials investigate the company’s compliance with the district’s ban on the sale of flavored tobacco products, reports The Wall Street Journal.
On June 17, the company’s Swedish Match North America division announced it had received a subpoena from the District of Columbia’s attorney general, requesting among other things information about the unit’s compliance with local restrictions on flavored tobacco.
A preliminary investigation by the company indicated that there had indeed been sales of flavored nicotine pouch products in the district. According to PMI, these related predominantly to certain online sales platforms and some independent retailers.
Swedish Match is currently conducting a full review of its sales and supply chain arrangement in D.C. and other U.S. localities where flavor bans apply.
Pending the investigation, PMI has suspended all online sales on Zyn.com. Sales on this platform have represented “a very small” percentage of the company’s U.S. Zyn volumes, according to PMI.
In the March quarter, Philip Morris’ shipment volumes of oral smoke-free product volumes surged by 40 percent, mainly driven by Zyn nicotine pouches in the U.S., where shipment volume reached 131.6 million cans.
Zyn has been available in the U.S. since 2014, but its sales have skyrocketed over the past year and a half, and its parent company is investing in Zyn capacity in the U.S.
Philip Morris bought Swedish Match in a $16 billion deal in 2022 as the company looked to reduce its reliance on cigarettes amid stricter regulations and a consumer shift toward alternatives to tobacco and traditional cigarettes.
June 18, 2024
Arcus Buys VapeClick

Photo: Khanchai
Regulatory compliance consultancy Arcus Compliance has acquired vape industry data platform VapeClick.
VapeClick is a comprehensive online directory of U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency submitted and notified vape and e-cigarette product data.
The platform enables vape industry stakeholders to search and identify appropriately published and notified products. VapeClick supports a wide variety of use cases, offering bespoke reporting and notifications from its vape intelligence application.
“We are delighted to have agreed the deal to acquire the vape-click.com portal,” said Arcus Compliance CEO Lee Bryan. “The solution has become the go-to portal for U.K.-registered vape products and will become an important piece of the jigsaw for the cutting-edge Arcus software portfolio. We have exciting plans for integration, including development for other industries as well as providing valuable oversight for enforcement bodies throughout Europe.”
“This is an important milestone in the growth and development of the innovative vape-click.com platform,” said VapeClick’s Chief Technical Officer Raphael Klimaszewski. “We have spent many years building the database that has revolutionized how vape products can be quickly and readily checked and monitored for their compliance status.
“The acquisition of the portal by Arcus Compliance is a testament to the impact that the platform has made and its inherent value amongst its many users. We look forward to seeing it go from strength to strength under Arcus’ leadership.”
June 18, 2024