Tag: Romania

JTI Sets up Tech Hub

Image: Zerophoto
Japan Tobacco International has established a technological hub in Romania, reports Romania Insider.
The new center will support the company’s global operations with business technology solutions, analytics and cyber security, among other services. JTI has 36 factories globally and eight research and development centers, according to the company.
“The technology hub established in Romania is one of the most important among the six global technology centers established by JTI worldwide and symbolizes our continued strong commitment to the success of Romania,” said Alexander Pitchka, general manager of JTI Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria.
JTI employs more than 1,400 people in Romania, spread across its Bucharest headquarters, its factory, the recently established technological hub and more than 30 sales offices.
JTI Romania also coordinates the company’s activities in Bulgaria and Moldova.
October 8, 2024
Industry Laments Romania’s Vape Tax

Photo: E-Potion
Tobacco harm reduction advocates are criticizing Romania’s new excise tax on nicotine-free e-liquids and vapes, saying it will discourage smokers from switching to safer alternatives. Vaping companies, meanwhile, fear the increased financial strain will hurt their business.
“This excise tax increases the cost for consumers who are trying to quit smoking by using nicotine-free alternatives. It also places additional financial burdens on businesses like ours that have invested heavily in the vape market,” said a spokesperson for e-Potion, an e-liquid manufacturer and vape retailer in Sibiu, in a statement.
“While we understand the need for regulation, it should not come at the cost of public health.”
E-Potion said will continue to support its customers and help them adapt to the evolving regulatory environment. The company is exploring various initiatives to mitigate the financial burden on consumers who rely on nicotine-free alternatives to quit smoking.
Additionally, e-Potion is partnering with local health organizations to provide educational resources and support for smoking cessation.
Romania has been cracking down on smoking alternatives in recent months. Earlier this year, its Chamber of Deputies adopted a bill banning advertising of electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches.
In October 2023, the country banned flavored heated tobacco products, in line with the EU requirement.
July 19, 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
Romania Bans Flavors for Heated-Tobacco Products

Image: Dancing Man
Last month, the Romanian government enacted Governmental Ordinance No. 23/20.07.2023 amending and supplementing the Romanian Tobacco Law (GO 23). The move bans all flavored heated-tobacco products.
The law takes effect on Oct. 23, 2023.
Prior to enacting GO 23 under the framework of Romanian Tobacco Law, only cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco were subject to the prohibition of characterizing flavors and containing flavorings in any of their components, such as filters, papers, packages, capsules or any technical features.
The aim of GO 23 is to extend this prohibition to heated-tobacco products and to impose more restrictive requirements on packaging and labeling of such heated-tobacco products, according to media reports.
For the first time, GO 23 enacts a legal definition of “heated-tobacco products,” which refers to “a novel tobacco product that is heated to produce an emission containing nicotine and other chemicals, which is then inhaled by user(s) and that, depending on its characteristics, is a smokeless tobacco product or a tobacco product for smoking.”
This definition will include any type of vaping devices that entail heating of tobacco in view of obtaining an inhalable emission containing nicotine and other chemicals.
Heated-tobacco products with any type of “characterizing flavor,” such as menthol, fruits, etc., will no longer be allowed in the Romanian market.
Additionally, each unit of and any outside packaging of heated-tobacco products must carry the mandatory message: “Tobacco smoke contains over 70 substances known to cause cancer.”
GO 23 also states that each unit packet and any outside packaging of heated-tobacco products for smoking must carry combined health warnings that observe all the requirements set out in art.
All producers and importers of heated-tobacco products in Romania must notify the Romanian Health Ministry within 90 days after the enactment of GO 23.
August 25, 2023
Industry Concerns Over Romanian Tax Plans

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
Romania’s finance ministry plans to increase excise duties on tobacco and nicotine products this year in addition to the excise calendar that has already been approved, causing tobacco firms concern, according to The Romania Insider.
“The moderate five-year timetable for increasing excise duty adopted less than 12 months ago should have provided the fiscal predictability needed to combat illicit trafficking,” said Jorge Araya, director of the southeast Europe area for BAT. “It should not be forgotten that illicit trafficking also means decreasing revenues to the state budget, financing criminal networks and uncontrolled access to products that do not meet quality or hygiene standards.”
Excise duty was previously increased in April of this year. Excise duties and cigarette prices in Romania are the highest in the European Union in relation to purchasing power.
Araya argues that the tax increases make smuggling very profitable because cigarettes can be bought in neighboring countries at around half the price of those in Romania.
July 11, 2023
Romania to Hike ‘Sin Taxes’

Photo: Maksym Kapliuk
Romania’s government will increase tobacco and alcohol excise duties as of Aug. 1, aiming to boost public revenue, reports SeeNews. The measure will be followed by a 10 percent tax hike on sugary drinks effective Jan. 1, 2023
The excise duty on tobacco and alcohol has been unchanged since 2015.
The European Union requires member states to impose an excise duty of at least 60 percent of the weighted average retail selling price of cigarettes.
The Romanian government expects the measures to boost budget revenues by RON1.2 billion ($242 million) this year and RON10.57 billion in 2023.
July 17, 2022
JTI to Upgrade its Romanian Factory

Photo: gavia26210 from Pixabay
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) will invest €60 million ($70.43 million) to upgrade the production capacities of its factory in Romania, reports SeeNews.
The investment program will be deployed over the next three years, increasing the volume of JTI cigarettes manufactured in Romania.
The factory located in Bucharest’s Pipera industrial area is expected to play a key role in JTI’s sourcing to the EU markets.
“JTI Manufacturing will be provided with cutting-edge equipment in terms of technology and production standards,” JTI Romania factory lead Jamie Dunlop said.
Romania is the third-largest cigarette manufacturer in Europe after Germany and Poland. At present, some 70 percent of JTI Manufacturing Romania’s production is exported to some 50 countries.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, in 2020, exports totaled over €1.3 billion.
JTI Manufacturing will be provided with cutting-edge equipment in terms of technology and production standards.
Jamie Dunlop, JTI Romania factory lead
Currently, JTI employs more than 1,200 people in Romania, including 500 at the Bucharest factory.
The company’s two entities in Romania—manufacturing and trading—paid over RON4.77 billion ($1.14 billion) in excise, VAT and other taxes, duties and contributions to the Romanian state in 2020, up 12 percent from the previous year.
JTI started operating in Romania in 1993 as R.J. Reynolds International and was one of the first multinationals to invest in the local tobacco industry. The company has invested over €250 million in Romania to date.
March 31, 2021
Rights polluted
Halting the spread of the tobacco ‘epidemic’ worldwide would align with a human right that global leaders should recognise and act upon, according to a story by Sarantis Michalopoulos for euractiv.com quoting public health activists.
“The tobacco industry floods countries with an addictive and lethal product, cigarettes, which kill over seven million people per year,” said Laurent Huber, director of US Action on Smoking & Health (ASH), talking ahead of two anti-tobacco conferences in Bucharest, Romania.
“For this reason, the global health community and some human rights agencies recognise that the tobacco industry violates the rights to life and health and undermines many other rights including children’s rights and women[‘s] rights.”
A Global Forum on Human Rights and a Tobacco-Free World was due to be held today in Romania by the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP) and ASH. It was to be hosted by the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
In addition, on March 27-29, ENSP is due to hold its 4th International Conference on Tobacco Control, together with the Romanian Society of Pneumology.
Both conferences were said to be aimed at bringing together global leaders in health and human rights in order to co-ordinate the fight against tobacco and upgrade it to the level of a human right.
‘The nexus between tobacco control and recognised human rights is clear, particularly in the case of the rights to health and life recognised in numerous human rights treaties and national constitutions, but encompassing many other rights as well,’ the organisers reportedly said in a statement.
“Human rights norms and obligations can be powerful tools to combat tobacco industry interference in policy-making and litigation.’
March 26, 2019
Doing well out of tobacco
The value of Romania’s exports of unmanufactured and manufactured tobacco fell during the first six months of this year, while the value of the country’s imports of these products rose, according to a story in The Business Review citing figures from INS (Institutul Național de Statistică).
During the first six months of 2018, Romania reportedly exported unmanufactured and manufactured tobacco worth €338.6 million, a figure that was down by 5.3 percent on that of the same period of 2017.
Meanwhile, unmanufactured and manufactured tobacco imports during January-June 2018, at €193.3 million, were 13.4 percent higher than those of January-June 2017.
Despite the fall in exports and the rise in imports, Romania recorded a tobacco-trade surplus of €145.3 million during January-July 2018.
The Review said that the best estimations of Romania’s leaf tobacco production was about 600-800 tons of Burley and 500-1,500 tons of flue-cured Virginia. It suggested that the high level of variation in the flue-cured estimation reflected the possibility that some leaf tobacco grown in Moldova was shipped to Romania.
The Review reported also that Romania had posted the biggest price increases in the EU during the past 17 years, with the prices of alcohol and tobacco having become eight times more expensive than they were in 2000.
October 8, 2018
BAT investing in glo
British American Tobacco said yesterday that it would invest €800 million during the next five years in its factory in Ploiești, Romania.
‘The investment, which will generate 200 new jobs in Romania, will support the expansion of BAT’s innovative tobacco heating product – glo – in countries across Europe during the second half of 2018,’ the company said in a press note posted on its website.
‘A completely new manufacturing hall will be built dedicated to producing the specially designed tobacco sticks – called Neostiks – which work with the glo tobacco heating device. In total, an additional 7,000 square metres of production space will be created and, once completed, the Romanian production plant will be the sole supplier of glo Neostiks across Europe, as BAT continues its ambition to transform the tobacco industry with a range of potentially reduced-risk alternatives for smokers.’
The investment will enhance also the cigarette-making capabilities within the factory.
“We have a long-held ambition to offer smokers a range of potentially reduced-risk products – like tobacco heating devices, e-cigarettes and oral tobacco,” Tadeu Marroco, regional director – Europe and North Africa, was quoted as saying. “This ambition has seen us launch vaping products and tobacco heating devices in 16 countries in the last five years and we’ve bold plans to increase our geographical footprint in the second half of 2018. The significant investment in our factory in Romania is testament to our commitment to offer smokers a wider range of tobacco and nicotine products – with a particular focus on potentially reduced-risk alternatives to smoking – in an increasing amount of countries.”
The factory will supply Neostiks also for the Romanian market following the launch of glo there in December. In the six months since its launch, first in Bucharest and then in 17 other major cities around Romania, almost 25,000 consumers are said to have bought glo and tens of millions of Neostiks have been sold.
In 2017 BAT said, its revenues outside of the US from e-cigarettes and tobacco heating products quadrupled to £397 million. On a full year basis including Reynolds American’s contribution, this would have been more than £500 million.
And the company aims to generate more than £1 billion revenue from NGPs by the end of 2018 and to more than £5 billion by 2022.
June 12, 2018