The Philippines’ leaf-tobacco industry, which has been in a slump due to higher tobacco-product excise taxes and stricter regulations on smoking, is targeting the export market, according to a GMA News story.
Data from the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, has shown that tobacco production declined by 30 percent, from 68 million kg in 2013 to 48 million kg in 2017.
The New Excise Tax on Tobacco and Alcohol Products act, which was enacted in 2013, gradually increased the levies on cigarettes to P30 per pack in 2017.
The NTA has projected output down to 42 million kg this year, but it believes that exports will reverse the downtrend trend.
“I think this is the year that it will start to increase,” NTA Regulations Department officer-in-charge Rohbert Ambros told reporters on the side of a forum in Makati City on Friday.
“The particular Burley type planted in the Philippines is the best type in the world…,” he said.
“But since we are the only country left as possible sources of Burley type, our local producers will expand.”
However, domestic consumption will remain stagnant due to the higher excise taxes and a national smoking ban in public places.
Category: Sustainability
Looking to export markets
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.’It's time for action
The US Food and Drug Administration has failed to approve a single reduced-harm nicotine product in the past year, despite having unveiled a new ‘roadmap’ in July 2017 that emphasized the role such products can play in reducing tobacco-related illness, according to a piece by Michelle Minton at cei.org.
‘That lapse does a huge disservice to millions of smokers who could benefit from switching from cigarettes to a far less harmful product,’ Minton said.
‘A year ago, the FDA claimed it would balance regulation against encouraging the development of harm-reducing products. But with each passing week it’s become clear that the biggest roadblock on the path to tobacco harm reduction is the agency’s own cumbersome product approval process.’
Minton pointed out that it would be easy for the FDA to encourage the development of less harmful nicotine products for smokers. The market already provided alternatives in the form of e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and heat-not-burn devices, she said. All that was needed to make these products available and viable as smoking cessation tools was for the FDA to establish a regulatory structure that made it easier and cheaper for manufacturers to earn FDA approval to sell the products and advertise them as being of lower risk than combustible cigarettes.
But the FDA seemed to have done nothing to reform its pre-market tobacco approval gauntlet. During the past two years, the agency had received 367 premarket tobacco applications, which are required for the products to be sold legally in the US. None had been approved. The agency had received also 35 Modified Risk Tobacco Product applications (MRTP), which would allow tobacco products to be advertised as lower risk. The agency had not approved any such application, ever.
Minton pointed out that snus had helped Sweden get its smoking rate down to five percent, lower by far than any other EU nation and the US; and, as a result, Sweden had one of the lowest incidences of lung cancer and oral cancers in the EU.
While snus could be sold in the US, it could not be advertised as being of lower risk than cigarettes, even though it was. Consequently, US consumers saw little reason to switch from smoking to smokeless tobacco.
So far, the FDA had considered MRTPs from several snus companies, including Swedish Match, which submitted an application in 2014 and was denied two and half years later. Currently, R.J. Reynolds, which submitted an MRTP in March 2017, was still waiting on a decision from the FDA.
[In December 2016, the FDA announced a partial ruling offering Swedish Match two years to submit an amended application, and TR understands that the company is finalizing its amendment and plans to submit it soon.]Smoking incidence down
The incidence of tobacco use in the Americas has dropped to 17 percent, which is below the global average of 20 percent, according to a new report by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
However, while the PAHO says that progress has been made to address the ‘tobacco epidemic in the Americas’, it adds that more than one-third of countries in the region have yet to implement the highest level of effective tobacco control measures.
Governments must urgently increase efforts to apply these measures and save lives, says the PAHO’s Regional Report on Tobacco Control in the Americas 2018.
“While we are certainly heading in the right direction when it comes to reducing the number of tobacco users and protecting the population from the adverse effects of tobacco exposure, we are just not moving fast enough,” said Dr. Anselm Hennis, director of the Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health Unit at PAHO.
“The fact remains that more than 2,000 people die each day in the Americas as a direct consequence of tobacco use and this epidemic will continue unless countries accelerate the speed at which effective policies are being implemented.”
The report highlights the progress that countries in the Americas have made towards implementing the measures outlined in the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. These measures include regulations to protect people from tobacco smoke by establishing 100 percent smoke-free environments; the mandatory inclusion of large, graphic health warnings on all tobacco packaging; raising taxes on tobacco; and a total ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
But it reports that 12 out of 35 countries in the Americas have yet to implement even one of these ‘effective tobacco control measures’.
And it says that while implementation of tobacco control measures has increased in the region over the past decade, progress has recently slowed down.Malawi growers underpaid
Malawi’s Burley growers are underpaid, according to a new report cited in a Maravi Post story relayed by the TMA.
The report, entitled The Burley Tobacco Value Chain Analysis, was released by the Center For Social Concern (CFSC).
It called for crop diversification for Burley tobacco growers and the creation of a structured market for them, because currently they were not ‘adequately compensated for their contribution in the value chain’.
The report found very low levels of crop or enterprise diversification within the tobacco sector.
It said that farmers understood the need to diversify their range of crops and that most of them already grew other crops, with the most popular being maize (for food), groundnuts, soybean, and beans.
However, the consensus of the farmers was that as a cash crop, there was currently no viable alternatives to tobacco.
“There are so many factors suggesting the leaf processing companies enjoy wider profit margins which can be passed on to other players through higher prices on the auction floors,” said CFSC programs officer Lucky Mfungwe. The Malawi Government needs to be more resolute in enforcing minimum prices to make this happen.”
Mfungwe said that since the domestic tobacco sector was consolidated “there needs to be continuous efforts to bring in more buyers at the auction floors to help build up competition for the tobacco grown by independent farmers”.
He called also for a “review of the contract farming mechanism to ensure that it remains beneficial to the industry in the long term”.Vaping outlet for inmates
Prisoners who smoke are to be offered free vaping kits as Scotland’s jails prepare to go tobacco-free later this year, according to a story by Reevel Alderson for BBC Online.
The initiative, which will cost about £200,000, is part of a program to help inmates give up smoking.
Vaping kits will be issued from the start of November, before the ban comes into force at the end of the month.
For two months, the kits will be provided free of charge. They will then be sold at a discounted rate until April, after which prisoners will have to pay the normal price.
The Alderson story said it was believed that more than 70 percent of Scotland’s prison inmates smoked: a much higher rate than that within the general population. Among female inmates, the story said, the figure could be as high as 95 percent.
Smoking in enclosed public places was banned in Scotland in 2006, but the ban did not apply to prisons. Inmates have been permitted to smoke in their cells and some outside spaces.
But a year ago the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) announced plans to make prisons completely smoke-free.
The Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Liam Kerr said it was right to offer some transitional help for inmates, but that the cost should also be considered. “This is a cost to the public purse at the end of the day, but they have time limited it,” he was quoted as saying.
“I think that has to be the right thing to do. To say we will help you transition off smoking, but after that the public shouldn’t be shelling out to help you transition away.”Bring out the bins
A smokers’ lobby group today gave a cautious welcome to a new campaign to reduce cigarette litter but called on councils to provide more cigarette bins.
“It’s all very well demanding that smokers bin the butt, but where are the bins?”, asked Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest in responding to the launch of Keep Britain Tidy’s ‘BinTheButt’ campaign.
“Unfortunately many councils refuse to provide cig bins because they say it ‘normalises’ smoking. They can’t have it both ways.
“We’d be happy to support this campaign but if Keep Britain Tidy really wants to address the issue of cigarette butts they need to lobby councils to provide more bins.
“They also need to re-engage with the tobacco industry and work with consumer groups such as Forest.
“Meanwhile a bin the butt campaign that ignores the importance of bins is a bit of a joke, to be honest.”UK taxes too high
Eighty-six percent of UK adult smokers believe that tobacco prices are too high, while 56 percent agree that rising prices tempt them to buy untaxed tobacco, according to the results of a survey commissioned by the UK’s Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (UKTMA).
The survey of more than 12,000 adult smokers in the UK found that more than three-quarters regularly avoid UK taxes by buying tobacco from the black market, abroad or duty free.
It found that the number of smokers who avoid paying UK duty now stands at an all-time high, a finding that the UKTMA says supports HM Revenue and Customs analysis that untaxed and illicit tobacco remains a problem throughout the UK.
‘Moreover,’ the UKTMA said in a press note, ‘the findings confirm that adult smokers are being pushed towards non-UK-duty tobacco by high tobacco taxation, the introduction of plain packaging and the recent ban on minimum tobacco pack sizes.’
The key findings of the survey were said to be:- ’76 percent of adult smokers buy untaxed tobacco at least once a year – this can be from legal sources such as at duty free but also includes illegal sources such as from people in the pub or in street markets.’
- ’16 percent of adult smokers spend more than £1,000 on untaxed tobacco every year.’
- ’28 percent of smokers agree that plain packaging tempts them to buy untaxed tobacco.’
- ’37 percent of smokers agree that minimum pack sizes tempt them to buy untaxed tobacco.’
- ‘The average price for a pack of 20 illegal cigarettes is just £4.33 – almost half the typical legitimate UK price.’
- ‘London (85 percent) has the highest prevalence on non-UK duty paid tobacco purchases with Wales having the lowest (70 percent).’
- ’86 percent of adult smokers believe that tobacco prices are too high and 56 percent agree that rising tobacco prices tempt them to buy untaxed tobacco.’
- ’64 percent of adult smokers would support the re-introduction of duty free tobacco shopping from the EU post Brexit even if it was limited to 200 cigarettes or 250 g roll your own tobacco.’
‘These findings reinforce the concern that the illicit tobacco trade is continuing to be a major problem,’ the press note said.
‘Valued at £2.5 billion in 2016-17 by HRMC, the illicit tobacco trade reduces tobacco tax revenues, brings crime into communities, costs jobs and impacts legitimate business, particularly independent retailers.
‘The TMA recommends that, post-Brexit, the UK introduces fixed limits on personal tobacco imports to end the option for smokers to bring unlimited amounts of cheap tobacco back from the EU. This would reduce the opportunity for criminals to buy tobacco, claiming it is for personal use and then selling it on illegally.’
Giles Roca, the director general of the UKTMA was quoted as saying that the survey, now in its fifth year, had shown that the issue of untaxed tobacco was becoming an even greater problem across the UK.
“Smokers cite price as the chief reason for avoiding duty and with tax making up 90 percent of the price, combined with two duty increases in 2017 we can see the direct impact that the Government’s taxation policy is having,” Roca said.
“This survey also shows that the introduction of plain packaging and the ban on small packs of tobacco in the last year are also contributing to making the problem of untaxed tobacco purchases worse and encouraging smokers to buy from illegal sources.
“The Government needs to undertake a full review of its approach towards tobacco as their policies are contributing to this illegal activity, which affects local communities, public finances and small business.”Going down the drain
Half of the UK’s regular smokers believe it is acceptable to discard cigarette butts down a drain, despite expert warnings about the risk they pose to marine wildlife, according to a Press Association report published by the Daily Mail and citing the results of a survey.
The survey, carried out for the environment charity Keep Britain Tidy, found that 52 percent of daily smokers polled said they did not see a problem with getting rid of their cigarette butts in this way.
Meanwhile, only 53 percent of those surveyed said they realised the butts would end up in the sea when dropped down the drain.
Thirty-nine percent of those polled said they had discarded a butt in this way during the past month, despite 77 percent of them saying they were concerned that toxins from their cigarettes could harm marine life.
The survey of 4,146 people – including 502 smokers – was carried out by YouGov to mark the launch of Keep Britain Tidy’s Flicking Blue Murder campaign, raising awareness of the link between cigarettes and the marine environment.
“Following Sir David Attenborough’s rallying cry to reduce plastic waste on Blue Planet II, we wanted to show how simple everyday behaviour can affect the environment,” said Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton.Activists go after butts
A group of committed activists is targeting a product it describes as comprising the number-one man-made contaminant in the world’s oceans – cigarette butts, according to an NBC News story.
A leading tobacco industry academic, a California lawmaker and a worldwide surfing organization are among those arguing cigarette filters should be banned.
The nascent campaign hopes to be bolstered by linking activists focused on human health with those focused on the environment.
“It’s pretty clear there is no health benefit from filters,” said Thomas Novotny, a professor of public health at San Diego State University. “They are just a marketing tool. And they make it easier for people to smoke.
“It’s also a major contaminant, with all that plastic waste. It seems like a no-brainer to me that we can’t continue to allow this.”
However, it has proved difficult in the past to prevent the littering of cigarette butts.
According to the NBC News story, a California assemblyman who proposed a ban on cigarettes with filters couldn’t get the proposal out of committee. And while a New York state senator wrote legislation to create a rebate for butts returned to redemption centers, that idea stalled. San Francisco is said to have made the biggest inroad: a 60-cent per-pack fee to raise roughly $3 million a year to help defray the cost of cleaning up discarded cigarette filters, though the story did not say whether this initiative had met with success.
But cigarette butts have now fallen into the sights also of one of the nation’s biggest anti-smoking organizations, the Truth initiative, which last week used the nationally-televised Video Music Awards to launch a new campaign against these butts.
As in a couple of previous messages delivered via social media, the organization is going after ‘the most littered item in the world’.
The story said that tobacco companies, fearful of being held responsible for cigarette litter, had launched a number of initiatives.
But, in part, they appear to be up against recalcitrant smokers. Academics who followed prevention and clean-up campaigns said they encountered an essential problem: most smokers preferred to flick their butts.
‘In industry focus groups, some smokers said they thought filters were biodegradable, possibly made of cotton; others said they needed to grind the butts out on the ground, to assure they didn’t set a refuse can afire; others said they were so “disgusted” by the sight or smell of cigarette ashtrays, they didn’t want to dispose of their smokes that way,’ the story said. ‘In one focus group cited in industry documents, smokers said tossing their butts to the ground was “a natural extension of the defiant/rebellious smoking ritual”.’
