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Tag: Theo Foukkare

  • Australia’s Tobacco Policies Spark Harm and Chaos, Industry Expert Says

    Australia’s Tobacco Policies Spark Harm and Chaos, Industry Expert Says

    In a candid keynote at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum (GTNF), Theo Foukkare, CEO of the Australian Association of Convenience Stores, delivered a scathing assessment of Australia’s tobacco and nicotine policies, saying the country is saddled with “harm and chaos.” Speaking under the theme “The Australian Experience: From Global Leader to Global Failure,” Foukkare outlined how once-successful public health strategies had collapsed under the weight of excessive taxation, poor enforcement, and the rise of organized crime.

    “Australia has become the model of what not to do. By any measure, it’s an absolute failure,” he said. “And believe it or not, our government still claims to have world-leading standards. We’re dealing with an absolute tsunami of illegal nicotine products entering the country. I call it ‘Tobacco Wars.’ It’s actually playing out in real life every day. The illegal nicotine market is now bigger than the next five organized crime categories combined.

    “Through bad policy, we’re actually creating harm,” he said, noting that smoking rates have remained virtually unchanged in the past decade despite mounting taxes and restrictions.

    “We had the most aggressive excise policy any government in the world had undertaken,” Foukkare said, with a legal pack of cigarettes now costing between $45 and $50. “They killed the golden goose, because the consumers said, “Enough is enough. Why would I pay this when there are cheaper options?”

    According to Foukkare, Australia’s extreme excise policies pushed consumers to the black market, eroding legal sales and fueling criminal activity. Organized crime groups, he added, have even begun taking over farms to grow illicit tobacco, while state governments scramble to form task forces.

    “There’s so much threat and intimidation,” he said. “Some store owners are paying $5,000 a month in protection money. Pay or they’ll burn your shop down. One store owner got a handwritten note saying he needed to meet with the [crime] boss. He took the note to the police, the next day, a car drove through the front of the store, and now it’s closed.”

    Foukkare criticized the government for ignoring early warnings about policy failures and dismissing data because it was industry-funded. Now, with estimates suggesting up to 60% of tobacco consumption is illicit, officials are finally acknowledging the scale of the problem. Foukkare also condemned the government’s anti-vaping stance, arguing that public messaging has convinced most Australians that vaping is more dangerous than smoking.

    Despite the creation of new penalties—million-dollar fines, landlord accountability clauses, and police powers to shut down stores—Foukkare said the measures have done little to fix the underlying issue. “We’ve spent a billion dollars and haven’t done anything to reduce smoking or keep people safe,” he said.

  • Pushing Back Against Illicit Trade

    Pushing Back Against Illicit Trade

    At a GTNF panel in Brussels on illicit tobacco, industry leaders, academics, and regulators warned that well-intentioned policies and slow regulatory systems are helping organized-crime networks flourish — putting legal retailers at risk and undermining public-health goals. Moderator Rohan Pike, director of Rohan Pike Consulting, opened the session by challenging official rhetoric. “The Australian health department cannot issue a press release without using the words ‘world leading,’ when all we’re leading the world in is excise tax and organized crime,” he said, arguing that high taxes and restrictive policies have created perverse incentives for illegal supply. Pike said he now supports accelerated access to reduced-harm products, noting: “If we can switch someone to a reduced-harm product, we’ve reduced smoking.”

    Theo Foukkare, CEO of the Australian Association of Convenience Stores, described a market under siege. Pointing to what he called ideological policymaking, Foukkare said decision-makers are listening to a narrow set of experts and ignoring real retail evidence. He recounted attacks on compliant shopkeepers and warned that, if trends continue, “the legal market will cease to exist.” He added that organized networks can import dozens of containers and still profit even when most shipments are seized.

    Nick Hodsman, head of anti-illicit trade policy at BAT, stressed the scale of production driving the illicit trade. “Margins organized criminals can make are something the legal industry could only dream of,” he said, highlighting mass production in parts of Asia and growing challenges around emerging nicotine categories. Hodsman called for improved visibility on what is leaving origin countries and what actually arrives in destination markets.

    King’s College London’s Dr Alexander Kupatadze warned of the complexity of criminal networks and systemic data weaknesses. He urged closer research and better integration of siloed datasets — across customs, law enforcement, and private firms — to find the “needle” in vast flows of information.

    U.S. regulatory expert Lillian Ortega pointed to slow and fragmented review processes for creating a grey market for new products. Ortega blamed antiquated tracking systems, inconsistent federal enforcement, and misdeclared imports that allow illicit goods to reach consumers while compliant manufacturers wait for approvals. “Criminals thrive off confusion,” she said.

    Panelists converged on several policy responses: beefing up frontline enforcement and retailer protection, modernizing tracking and customs documentation, improving inter-agency data sharing, and creating faster, clearer regulatory pathways for reduced-risk products to reduce demand for illicit supply.