Japan Tobacco Inc.’s domestic cigarette sales volume during August, at 7.3 billion, was down by 9.4 percent on that of August 2017, 8.1 billion, according to preliminary figures issued by the company today. The August 2017 figure was down by 13.0 percent on that of August 2016.
Volume during January-August, at 54.8 billion, was down by 12.8 percent on that of January-August 2017, 62.8 billion. The January-August 2017 volume was down by 11.6 percent on that of January-August 2016.
JT’s market share stood at 62.2 percent during August (up from 62.1 percent in July), at 61.7 percent during January-August, and at 61.3 percent during January-December 2017.
JT’s domestic cigarette revenue during August, at ¥43.8 billion, was down by 9.4 percent on its August 2017 revenue, ¥48.3 billion, which was down by 12.7 percent on its revenue of August 2016.
Revenue during January-August, at ¥326.8.0 billion, was down by 12.5 percent on that of January-August 2017, ¥373.7 billion, which was down by 9.9 percent on its revenue of January-August 2016.
Category: People
Fall in sales falling
Much work to be done
England will not go smoke free until after 2050, according to new research conducted by Frontier Economics and commissioned by Philip Morris Limited (PML).
However, there are stark variations in the predicted rates of decline in different parts of the country, with one in 10 areas predicted still to be smoking in 32 years’ time and 23 percent predicted to have stopped before 2030.
The areas predicted to go smoke free soonest are Bristol (in 2024), Wokingham and York (both 2026).
The areas expected still to be smoking beyond 2050 include North Lincolnshire, Derby and Cheshire East.
The research highlights also a variety of measures that could accelerate the decline in cigarette smoking, including increasing the number of smokers using National Health Service Stop Smoking services and getting more switching to better alternatives such as electronic cigarettes and non-combusted cigarettes.
The new figures are detailed on a website launched by PML at www.lastsmoke.co.uk, which presents Office of National Statistics data for postcode areas through an interactive tool. It also includes a powerful call to action to encourage communities to go smoke free faster.
The findings of the report include:- Regional falls in smoking rates from 2011 to 2017 varied from 10 percent to one percent, with one area, Cheshire East, seeing a rise in smoking prevalence in 2017 from that of six years earlier.
- Significant differences in smoking prevalence across England, with three percent of local authority areas having a rate higher than 20 percent and four percent having a rate of between five percent and 10 percent.
- Deprived areas have a higher prevalence rate of smokers. The three areas with the highest rates of smoking, Kingston upon Hull, Blackpool and North Lincolnshire, have an average rate of 22.1 percent, compared to an average rate of 8.8 percent among the three lowest, which are Rutland, York and Wokingham.
The Last Smoke website also includes other proposals that could accelerate the end of cigarettes in the country. These include more independent research into smoking alternatives, targeted government campaigns through school and social media to stop smoking in the first place and tackling the trade in illicit cigarettes by taking tougher action against criminal gangs.
“Our business is committed to going smoke free as fast as possible and ultimately stopping selling cigarettes altogether,” said Mark MacGregor, UK corporate affairs director of PML. “What this research reveals is the huge variations in the decline in smoking in different parts of the country. We want to play our part in working with local businesses, retailers and councils in the areas with highest smoking rates. It is not going to be easy getting smokers in these areas to stop. One of the keys to success will be ensuring they understand that there are more alternative options than ever that can help them give up cigarettes for good.”Prices 'not much different'
Cambodia last year exported to Vietnam more than 1,000 tons of leaf tobacco valued at more than US$2 million, according to a story in The Phnom Penh Post.
The figure marks a 24 percent increase from that of 2016, the Ministry of Commerce was quoted as saying.
Ministry spokesman Long Kemvichet said Cambodia had last year exported to Vietnam 1,200 tons of leaf tobacco worth US$2.37 million, up from 989.75 tons worth US$1.91 million in 2016.
In 2016, Cambodia and Vietnam agreed on preferential duties for agriculture products crossing their shared border.
Under the one-year agreement, Cambodia could export 3,000 tons of leaf tobacco to Vietnam duty-free.
However, Kemvichet said it was unclear if the agreement would be renewed for this year.
“We do not have any update from our team as yet regarding the tobacco deal with Vietnam,” he said.
Cambodia produced 9,089 tons of tobacco last season, an increase of 37 percent on the previous season’s harvest, according to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture.
Last season’s harvest war produced on an area of 6,859 ha, which was increased by 19 percent on that used to produce the 2016 harvest.
Neang Bros, a broker in Stung Treng district, Kampong Cham province, who buys tobacco from farmers, was quoted as saying that the price of tobacco was about 8000 riel (US$2) per kg, depending on quality.
“I have a lot of buyers coming to my house to buy from me,” he said. “The market is better than a year before but the price is not much different.”If it's called a cigarette…
Five bills that have been put before Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, or parliament, equate electronic cigarettes with conventional cigarettes, according to an Interfax Ukraine story.
Under the bills, e-cigarettes will be included in the list of tobacco products, and e-liquids will be included in the list of excisable cigarettes.
The bills ban the sponsorship, advertising and promotion of e-cigarettes and non-combusted cigarettes, as is the case with conventional tobacco products.
The bills also propose banning the production and sale of tobacco products ‘containing ammonia, ammonium and urea or a combination of them’.Investors in class actions
Philip Morris International and three of its top executives have been named as defendants in a class action being brought on behalf of anyone who purchased Philip Morris stock between February 8, 2018 and April 18, 2018, according to a story by Nickeesha Swaby in Courthouse News.
The action has been filed by lead plaintiff, the City of Westland Police and Fire Retirement System, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
CEO Andre Calantzopoulos, CFO Martin G. King, and COO Jacek Olczak are named as defendants along with the cigarette multinational.
According to the complaint, PM was experiencing lower sales for years attributed to a decline in smokers worldwide, but throughout the period in question, investors were assured that ‘new sales initiatives’ and ‘favourable sales trends’ were working to combat the issue.
The class is represented by Samuel H. Rudman of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP in Melville, N.Y., with David C. Walton and Brian E. Cochran in San Diego and Thomas C. Michaud of Vanoverbeke, Michaud & Timmony in Detroit.
Meanwhile, the Rosen Law Firm, a global investor-rights law firm, announced on Saturday the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of the securities of Philip Morris International from February 8, 2018 through April 18, 2018, both dates inclusive (Class Period). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for Philip Morris investors under the federal securities laws, according to a Business Wire report.
The lawsuit alleges that defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Philip Morris was experiencing a faster decline in overall cigarette and e-cigarette (or “heated tobacco”) sales volumes during the first quarter of 2018 than investors had been led to believe; (2) Philip Morris’ much-lauded sales initiatives had stalled; (3) Philip Morris was experiencing adverse sales headwinds in key markets; and (4) as a result of the foregoing, defendants’ statements about Philip Morris’ business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.Accusations out of Africa
Wealthy Western states need to put Big Tobacco in its place and prove to the developing world that they can tame the cigarette industry through concerted, unified action, according to a story by Michael Wilcox at africatimes.com.
Writing ahead of the eighth biannual summit in Geneva of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), Wilcox said it was crucial that the signatories to the FCTC stood firm.
As the tobacco industry tried to foist modern-day colonialism on Africa and Asia, it was urgent that the old colonial powers came to their aid.
Wilcox started his piece by saying that, since the first American explorers brought tobacco back to Europe at the turn of the 16th century, smoking had always been a first-world problem. ‘The product may have been grown by slaves in the Americas, or farmers in Africa and Asia, but it was always marketed to a wealthy Euro-American audience,’ he said.
‘Yet now Big Tobacco is shifting focus, driven by declining smoking rates in its core markets. New research shows the industry is ramping up production in Africa, attempting to exploit its growing wealth and lax tobacco regulation.
‘This is just the latest evidence of manufacturers’ growing infatuation with the developing world, where smoking is, worryingly, already on the rise.
‘Now it’s time for the global community to take action, before the industry gets an iron grip.’Interference index launched
A health advocacy group in the Philippines is pushing for stronger tobacco control policies, according to a story by The Philippine News Agency.
“As signatory to the [World Health Organization’s] Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, we have to have policies on tobacco control, but there are attempts or strategies that the tobacco industry uses to delay the passage of policies or rush them to avoid proper deliberation,” the MD of Health Justice Philippines (HJP) Jak Sarita was quoted as saying.
The HJP, which was described as an advocacy group with legal expertise in tobacco control and public health promotion, on Friday launched the Tobacco Industry Interference Index Philippine Report 2018.
The report was said to have revealed how tobacco companies were able to participate in and exert influence on public health policy development and implementation.
And it was said to have shown that stricter policies than those already imposed had to be passed. These included the imposition of higher taxes on tobacco, a ban on tobacco advertisements, and the removal of tobacco-industry influence from policy implementation.
The report recommended that the government provided information about its meetings and interactions with the tobacco industry.
Sarita said the report could teach stakeholders how to counter the tobacco industry’s interference while creating a well-informed public who could actively participate in campaigns on tobacco control and public health promotion.Let's be reasonable
Restaurant owners in Malaysia want to be able to reserve a few tables for customers who smoke, while anti-smoking groups want more-aggressive anti-tobacco measures in the wake of the Health Ministry’s announcement that it intends to gazette all open-air restaurants as no-smoking areas from December, according to a story by Loh Foon Fong for The Star.
The Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association president Ayoob Khan Muhamad Yakub, said smoking was bad, but, he added, restaurant owners could not chase away customers who wanted to smoke.
“The government should allow restaurant owners to have a few tables allocated for smokers, away from the other tables,” he said.
Ayoob hoped the ministry would consult municipal councils and the public on how the new regulations could be implemented.
Meanwhile, the National Cancer Society of Malaysia’s PR and communications assistant manager Mandy Thoo said 80 percent of Malaysians were non-smokers.
“Our cancer awareness programs and support activities for cancer patients and survivors reveal that many people have had enough of being exposed to second-hand smoke in public areas,” she said.
The society urged the government to adopt and implement a Tobacco Control Act.
Meanwhile, the secretary-general of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations’ (FOMCA) Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC), Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah, said the National Strategic Plan on Tobacco Control listed non-air-conditioned restaurants as the next target to be made non-smoking areas this year.
FOMCA urged the government to be more aggressive in promoting tobacco control measures because, it said, the country had not made much progress during the past 30 years, during which time smoking prevalence had been hovering between 21 percent and 23 percent.Standardized packs on way
Belgium is to introduce standardized tobacco packaging, according to a story in The Brussels Times quoting the Federal Minister for Public Health Maggie De Block.
The minister, who announced the plan a matter of weeks ago, was said to have received ‘rapid agreement’ from government colleagues.
The story suggested the new packaging would reflect that first introduced in Australia, with huge health warnings and minimal branding beyond the brand name.
No other details were given.Aiming for five percent
England could be almost tobacco-smoke-free within the next 12 years, according to a story by Harriet Williamson for Metro Café, quoting the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) agency Public Health England (PHE).
Duncan Selbie, described as a top health official, said that fewer than five per cent of people in England should be smoking by the year 2030, but he called on the NHS to do more to help people overcome their ‘addiction’ to tobacco.
‘Smoking should no longer be seen as a lifestyle choice, it is an addiction that warrants medical treatment,’ he was quoted as saying.
‘Everyone who smokes must be offered the support they need to quit.’
Selbie cited also cardiovascular disease and obesity as important areas for the NHS and Public Health England to address. ‘These three priorities are where the NHS and PHE should focus efforts,’ he said. ‘It is not that other priorities won’t matter, but these will need to matter most.
‘Successful delivery will require action from every part of civil society. We must pull together to use our resources and we must engage the public directly in the choices they are making about their own health and wellbeing.’
According to the NHS, smoking is responsible for 90 percent of lung cancers and can also cause cancers of the mouth, lips, throat, larynx, oesophagus, liver, bladder, kidneys stomach and pancreas.
Smoking is linked also to heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, infertility, pneumonia, bronchitis, and emphysema, and can worsen conditions such as asthma.
NHS figures from 2017 show that 14.9 percent of adults are currently classed as smokers, down from 15.5 percent in 2016, and 19.8 percent in 2011.
