Category: News This Week

Officials from Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has said that it intends to have all substances found in the nation’s top-selling cigarette brands analyzed, according to a Daily Yomiuri story relayed by the TMA.

It intends also to form a panel of medical experts and consumers to debate the possible implementation of further regulations on cigarette manufacturers and stronger anti-smoking measures.

In the financial year 2000, the ministry analyzed about 30 pre-selected substances in cigarettes and their smoke that were seen as harmful.

For the new testing procedure, the ministry will choose the 10 most popular selling cigarette brands inJapanand use a third-party research company to perform tests on the cigarettes and their smoke.

The results of these tests are due to be discussed by the panel but officials have not said how this data will be presented to the general public.

South   Africais considering imposing plain packaging on tobacco products manufacturers, according to a Times Live story.

“We are keen to test this and if there is… support for it, we will go this route,” the health department’s director for health promotion, Vimla Moodley, was quoted as saying.

For the time being, the department is testing the use of graphic warnings on tobacco packs, which currently carry text messages, including, ‘tobacco is harmful to your health’.

The Imperial Tobacco Group said today that its overall financial position and operational performance for the financial year to September 30 was in line with the board’s expectations.

‘We are delivering strong gains from our key strategic brands and improving our revenue momentum through our focus on driving quality growth across our total tobacco portfolio,’ the company said in a note posted on its website.

‘Tobacco net revenues (at constant currency) are expected to be up by around four per cent with particularly good performances in ourEastern Europe, Africa & Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.

‘Stick equivalent volumes are expected to decline by up to three per cent (compared to re-stated 2011 volumes of 346 billion as disclosed in the group’s 2012 half year results), the majority of which is due to ongoing market weakness in Ukraine (cigarette) and Poland (fine cut tobacco), and compliance with international trade sanctions against Syria.

‘We are making excellent progress with our key strategic brands Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, West and JPS, and expect this to be reflected in further strong volume and revenue gains from these brands, which continue to represent an increasing proportion of our volumes.’

Imperial said it expected to release its results for the year ending September 30 on October 30.

A delegation fromChinais inRichmond,Virginia, on a fact-finding mission to lay the groundwork for future efforts against tobacco-products counterfeiting, according to localUSreports relayed by the TMA and Tobacco China Online.

The Chinese officials, including representatives of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, the Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration’s enforcement division and the General Administration of Customs, were due to meet with representatives of Philip Morris USA and the Altria Group, and local, state and federal law enforcement officials inNew York.

Michael Thorne-Begland, director of brand integrity for Altria, was quoted as saying that his company’s experience had been that most counterfeit Marlboros came fromChina.

Millions of packs of counterfeit cigarettes are illegally shipped into theUSevery year to be sold on the black market, primarily in urban areas with relatively high cigarette taxes, such asNew York   City.

Although counterfeit Marlboros made in Chinaare produced in what Thorne-Begland described as completely unregulated and unsanitary conditions, the counterfeiters have developed highly accurate reproductions of the brand’s packaging.

Thorne-Begland said that Altria had been working with Chinese officials for several years to tackle the problem, but that this was the first time a delegation had traveled from China to the US specifically to discuss cigarette counterfeiting.

“We think it shows their willingness to continue to work with US industry to fight counterfeit cigarette trafficking,” Thorne-Begland added.

The names of bidders for a 50.4 per cent stake in the Greek cigarette maker Sekap SA are due to be announced tomorrow, according to a Bloomberg News story quoting a Kathimerini newspaper report and relayed by the TMA.

Due diligence is to be completed by the end of October.

Only five per cent of Irish smokers wrongly believes that a light color on a pack of cigarettes signals that the contents are less hazardous than are those in darker-colored packs.

The same proportion of Irish smokers believes that slim cigarettes are less hazardous than are traditional-sized cigarettes.

These figures, reported by the Irish Independent, were produced as part of an EU-wide survey.

The Eurobarometer on the Attitudes of Europeans towards Tobacco interviewed about 1,000 smokers inIreland.

Irish smokers light up an average of 15.7 cigarettes every day, 0.3 per cent down on the average recorded during a survey carried out in 2009.

Malawi’s Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) has said that about 80 per cent of tobacco growers will be moving to contract farming for the 2012-13 production season.

TCC’s CEO, Bruce Munthali, apparently told The Daily Times that the move was aimed at controlling tobacco production and trying to minimize the overproduction that had a negative effect on prices.

Eighty percent of farmers were going to be producing according to the IPS [Integrated Tobacco System], which acted as a production control measure in respect of quantity and quality.

Under the IPS, growers sign contracts with tobacco buyers who supply them with farm inputs and improved technologies for their tobacco production, in addition to linking them up with financial institutions.

“With IPS, growers would know the quantities needed by contracting companies plus the price they will be paid per kilogramme before venturing into production,” said Munthali.

Los Angeles-based Safecig and the Seminole Tribe of Florida Inc. yesterday launched Seminole Unconquered, which is said to be the first private label brand of electronic cigarette and cigar products.

The products will be sold in Seminole Smoke Shops, at Seminole & Hard Rock Casinos, and online.

The launch of the Seminole electronic vaping products has been timed to coincide with the midyear conference of the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA), which is being staged now, September 18 and 19, at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino,Hollywood.

Seminole electronic cigarettes in five flavors are being made available in brightly-colored packs that feature a stylized image of a Seminole Indian poling a dugout canoe across still water. The five flavors are Classic, Menthol, Traditional, Columbian andTrinidad. Each pack will contain three disposable electronic cigarettes, which are said to be equivalent to nearly three packs of traditional cigarettes.

Seminole Unconquered Cigars are being made available in three cigar flavors and are packaged in either a cigar tube or in a collector’s box including a cigar tube, and come with interchangeable mouthpieces and ash tips. The three flavors are Chairman™, President™ and Representative™.  Each cigar is said to be the equivalent of 10 tobacco cigars.

In conjunction with this new private label partnership, Safecig will be showing its new Aurora™ line of disposable electronic cigarettes and cigars in partnership with Seminole. These are said to be ‘incredibly lightweight’ and to offer about 120 puffs; or almost a full pack of tobacco cigarettes. The disposable cigars offer nearly 1,000 puffs each.

Aurora electronic cigarettes come in singles and three-packs, and the cigars come in singles or a box set.

Filtrona Filter Products has appointed Patrick Meredith (pictured) as its innovations director, based inSingapore.

Prior to his new role, Meredith was Filtrona Filters’ director of program management, having originally joined the company in 2003 as engineering project manager at the Filtrona Technology Centre atJarrow,UK.

Before joining Filtrona Filters, Meredith worked in construction as a design engineer, and in the automotive industry where he spent five years as a project engineer on capital investment projects around the world.

Meredith holds a BEng (Hons) in materials science and engineering from theUniversityofBathand a master’s degree in business administration, and is a chartered engineer.

“Innovation is absolutely key to providing a sustainable future, so I will be dedicated to maintaining a continuous flow of products that are both consumer relevant and provide value to both our customers and to Filtrona Filters,” Meredith said.

“The business challenges facing the industry also provide Filtrona Filters with some great opportunities, so I see exciting times ahead!”