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Category: News This Week

  • Foreign Expansion Driving KT&G’s Success

    Foreign Expansion Driving KT&G’s Success

    In an interview with The Korea Times, KT&G credited expanding overseas operations with its recent financial success, with foreign sales passing domestic for the first time in the company’s history. The South Korean company has seen rapid international growth, with foreign subsidiary revenue rising 245% since 2020 and overseas cigarette volumes more than doubling. KT&G reported record annual sales of 6.5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) and operating profit of 1.35 trillion won in 2025.

    Supported by 16 marketing and manufacturing hubs and five global production plants, KT&G said it plans to continue strengthening its global footprint and product portfolio, as investor interest grows and the company’s market value climbs.

    “Our overseas bases were not established for short-term sales gains,” a KT&G official said. “They were built to create a sustainable global business structure for the long term, taking into account specific consumer demands across different regions.”

  • Cigarette Smuggling Dominating Hong Kong Customs

    Cigarette Smuggling Dominating Hong Kong Customs

    Cigarette trafficking made up roughly three-quarters of all smuggling investigations handled by Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise Department in 2025, as overall smuggling cases climbed 24% year over year to more than 38,000, the department reported. Authorities recorded over 29,000 cigarette-related cases, up 36%, leading to more than 28,000 arrests, while total seizures remained steady at about 600 million sticks.

    Officials said organized networks increasingly used cross-border travelers — including attempts to conceal cigarettes in clothing, wheelchairs, and strollers — with a 41% rise in passengers exceeding the city’s duty-free limit of 19 cigarettes. Meanwhile, illicit drug cases declined 29% to 961, although total drug seizures increased 19% to 7.5 tons, and the estimated value of all seized smuggled goods reached HK$4.2 billion ($546 million).

  • Manufacturers Tell FDA They Need Benchmarks, Communication

    Manufacturers Tell FDA They Need Benchmarks, Communication

    During yesterday’s (Feb. 10) afternoon session of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “Roundtable on Premarket Tobacco Application Submissions for Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems Products,” Dr. Lynn Hull, acting senior science advisor in the Office of Science at FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), moderated the Pharmacological Panel along with the FDA’s supervisory pharmacologist in CTP’s Division of Individual Health Science, Dr. Carolina Ramôa.

    Manufacturers warned that conducting studies has been prohibitively expensive and unpredictable without clear performance benchmarks. They also urged the FDA to allow greater use of modeling and data-bridging approaches, though regulators signaled that such alternatives would face strict validation requirements and may not replace product-specific clinical testing.

    “How can we simplify and have more communication and lean more toward product characteristics to model and understand abuse liability?” Dr. Willie McKinney, founder and CEO of Mckinney Regulatory Sciences asked. “How do we have more meetings regardless of where our application is in the process to understand what you are currently thinking?”

    The agency maintained that measuring nicotine delivery and addiction potential is essential when determining whether products meet public health standards, highlighting clinical pharmacokinetic (PK) data as the most reliable evidence.

    “I absolutely understand where you’re coming from,” said Dr. Ramôa, “where you want to make it as efficient as possible, but understand where I’m coming from, where I have a duty to the American public to make sure I make the correct decision that does not impact them negatively.”

  • DoF Says Illicits Threaten Philippines Fiscal Stability

    DoF Says Illicits Threaten Philippines Fiscal Stability

    Philippine finance officials are raising alarms over the growing impact of illicit cigarette trade, warning that smuggling is driving down tobacco excise tax revenues and threatening funding for public health programs. The Department of Finance (DoF) said tobacco tax collections fell 24% from P174.6 billion ($3 billion) in 2021 to P132.3 billion ($2.2 billion) in 2024, despite rising smoking rates, with Finance officials describing illegal tobacco as a direct threat to fiscal stability and healthcare financing.

    Officials estimate the government may have lost up to P172 billion ($2.9 billion) in tobacco excise revenue between 2020 and 2025 due to smuggling, with illegal cigarettes accounting for roughly 20% of the market. Lawmakers and industry representatives said the price gap between legal packs, which sell for P125 to P200 ($2.13 to $3.40), and illicit packs priced as low as P30 ($0.51) is fueling demand, while also pointing to regulatory loopholes and misdeclaration of products as factors worsening the problem. Authorities are now considering measures including harmonizing vape tax rates, introducing minimum retail pricing, and strengthening coordination between regulatory agencies to curb illegal sales.

  • India ‘Illogical’ in Keeping Alternative Ban

    India ‘Illogical’ in Keeping Alternative Ban

    India has ruled out easing its 2019 ban on e-cigarettes, confirming that the prohibition will continue to include heat-not-burn tobacco products. The Health Ministry said the government is not considering amendments to the law and remains committed to evidence-based tobacco control measures, reinforcing restrictions in one of the world’s largest cigarette markets, where more than 100 billion cigarettes are sold annually and tobacco use is blamed for over 1 million deaths each year.

    The decision is a setback for Philip Morris International (PMI), which had lobbied Indian officials for years to allow its IQOS heated tobacco device, a move analysts viewed as a significant IQOS driver of future expansion. By maintaining the ban, according to Reuters, India effectively blocks PMI from introducing its flagship smoke-free product into a high-volume market that the company had hoped would support its long-term transition strategy.

    In an interview with Reuters, Jacek Olczak, the firm’s chief executive, said he had engaged with various people in India, adding that it was “illogical” for the market to be closed to smoking alternatives such as heated tobacco and vapes, but not cigarettes.

  • Alliance One Tabbed N.C. Exporter of the Year

    Alliance One Tabbed N.C. Exporter of the Year

    Alliance One North America, a subsidiary of Alliance One International, was named the 2026 Exporter of the Year by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services during the state’s Agricultural Development Forum. The award recognizes the company’s role in expanding global markets and exporting high-quality U.S. leaf tobacco while supporting the state’s agricultural economy. State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler highlighted the company’s contribution to maintaining North Carolina’s tobacco legacy and global competitiveness.

  • Pyxus Reports Strong 3Q Results

    Pyxus Reports Strong 3Q Results

    Pyxus International reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 net income of $16.9 million, with adjusted EBITDA holding steady at $80 million, as increased shipping volumes and third-party processing offset lower leaf product revenues. Quarterly sales fell to $655.8 million from $778.3 million a year earlier, largely due to shipment timing and lower average pricing in South America. The company reaffirmed full-year guidance of $2.4 billion to $2.6 billion in net sales and $215 million to $235 million in adjusted EBITDA, while warning that strong global crop production could lead to oversupply heading into fiscal 2027.

    Tobacco inventory at the end of the third quarter was $959.8 million, compared to $755.2 million at the same time last year, reflecting procurement of the larger current crops. Uncommitted inventory as a percentage of total processed tobacco remains unchanged from the prior year. At December 31, 2025, uncommitted inventory was $28 million, or 3.6%, of the $768.6 million in total processed inventory, compared to $21.9 million, or 3.6%, of total processed inventory of $603.3 million at December 31, 2024.

  • Michigan Gov Proposes Major Tobacco Tax Hikes

    Michigan Gov Proposes Major Tobacco Tax Hikes

    Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2026–27 budget proposal includes new and increased taxes on nicotine and tobacco products, imposing a 57% wholesale tax on vaping products and nicotine pouches, raising the tax on other tobacco products from 32% to 57%, and increasing the cigarette tax from $2 to $3 per pack. The measures are projected to generate about $232 million in additional annual revenue to support Medicaid, smoking cessation, and cancer prevention programs, and will be debated by state lawmakers in early 2026.

  • PCA and ProCigar Partner

    PCA and ProCigar Partner

    The Premium Cigar Association (PCA) and ProCigar announced a partnership agreement aimed at strengthening global collaboration within the premium cigar industry. The alliance will focus on supporting retailers, promoting premium cigar culture, expanding education initiatives across the supply chain, and enhancing international industry engagement between the U.S., the Dominican Republic, and other markets. As part of the partnership, ProCigar will return to exhibit at the PCA Trade Show, while a PCA delegation will attend the ProCigar Festival, reflecting efforts to deepen industry ties and jointly support promotional and educational programs.

  • Russia Begins Shipping Tobacco to North Korea

    Russia Begins Shipping Tobacco to North Korea

    Russia exported more than 110 tons of tobacco valued at over $700,000 to North Korea in 2025, according to estimates from the Agroexport federal center. The shipments mark the introduction of Russian tobacco products to the North Korean market, where they had not previously been supplied. The expansion formed part of broader growth in Russian agricultural exports to North Korea, which also included beer and rapeseed oil.