Focus on preventing illicit tobacco trade

The prevention of cigarette smuggling is one of five key tasks for Vietnam’s Market Management Agency this year, according to a VietnamNet story quoting Do Thanh Lam, deputy director of the agency.

Lam said that about 600 million–700 million packs of cigarettes were smuggled into Vietnam each year, “causing losses of nearly $190 million to the state treasury.”

During the first four months of the year, the agency seized 400,000 packs of cigarettes and collected VND2 billion (US$100,000) in fines.

According to Lam, the main reason for an increase that has occurred in respect of cigarette smuggling has to do with the tastes of Vietnamese smokers, who preferred foreign products.

Graphic warnings reduced in size

A Sri Lankan court yesterday dismissed a challenge filed by the country’s leading tobacco products manufacturer against the government’s requirement for the inclusion of graphic warnings on cigarette packs, according to a story on Colombo Page.

However, the court reduced the size of the warnings from 80 percent to 50–60 percent.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the petition filed by Ceylon Tobacco Company challenging the government’s special gazette notification of Aug. 8, 2012, requiring the warnings.

Report calls for immediate action against threat posed by tobacco use in Africa

A report by the Network of African Science Academies has called for immediate action to prevent what it says is the growing threat posed by tobacco use in Africa, according to a SpyGhana.com story.

The report, Preventing a Tobacco Epidemic in Africa: A Call for Effective Action to Support Health, Social, and Economic Development, assesses the health, economic, social and environmental effects of tobacco production and use in Africa.

And it reviews current tobacco-control efforts and examines tobacco industry tactics to undermine those efforts.

Among the key conclusions of the report is that smoking prevalence in Africa will increase by nearly 39 percent by 2030: from 15.8 percent in 2010 to 21.9 percent.

Africa is expected to experience the largest regional increase during that period.

The report said that the tobacco industry targeted women disproportionally but that young people represented the largest potential market for tobacco.

“Tobacco-related death and disease are certain to increase in the absence of strong action to prevent tobacco use,” the report said. “The increase in death and disease caused by tobacco could have devastating effects on public health, development efforts, and economic growth in African countries.”

The full story is at http://www.spyghana.com/tobacco-control-in-africa-to-get-urgent-attention/.

MEP raises questions over Imperial’s proposed facility closures in France

Questions have been raised in the European Parliament about the closure of Imperial Tobacco facilities in France.

In a preamble to his questions, French member of the European Parliament Patrick Le Hyaric said Seita had announced that the larger of the last two cigarette manufacturing plants in France was to be closed as part of a restructuring plan.

“The plant, which is located in Carquefou on the outskirts of Nantes, employs 327 people and last year produced 12.2 billion cigarettes, principally under the Gauloises and Gitanes brands,” he said.

“Imperial Tobacco is seeking to make total savings of €385 million between now and 2018, including €72 million this year. The restructuring operations should include the closure of the R&D facility in Bergerac, at which 30 people are employed.”

According to figures provided by Seita, the company employs about 1,150 people at its five facilities outside Paris: two cigarette manufacturing plants at Nantes and Riom; a tobacco processing plant at Le Havre; and two research facilities at Bergerac and Fleury-les-Aubrais.

“Have Seita and Imperial Tobacco been given any funding by the European Union?” the MEP asked. “If so, what sums have been provided and on what basis?

“Does the commission have any reliable information on the profits generated by large tobacco-related companies, such as Seita and Imperial Tobacco, that are looking to close plants in member states?

“Given that there is no indication that Imperial Tobacco Group is in financial difficulties and that the Nantes plant is to be closed because it is loss-making, how does the commission intend to protect workers against job losses that are not based on economic necessity?

“Does the commission intend to keep an eye on redundancy plans that are not based on economic necessity? What can the EU do to counter the trend of closing down operations that are viewed as not generating adequate returns for large private investors, despite still being profitable?”

Appointments at Hungarian DIET plant

Renata Becse and Franz Rappl have been appointed, respectively, process coordinator and administrator, and blending and DIET manager at Leaf NewCo.

Earlier this year, Leaf NewCo officially opened a factory in Hungary offering expanded tobacco or the use of expanded tobacco processing capacity to small- and medium-sized tobacco products manufacturers unable to justify the cost of installing their own expansion plants.

The new plant is being operated as a joint venture between the Continental Tobacco Group, which will use some of the plant’s capacity to enhance its tobacco products, and the global tobacco service provider and leaf merchant NewCo, which will commercialize most of the capacity through its recently formed Dutch company, NewCo Leaf Europe BV.

The plant was installed by Airco DIET within Continental’s premises at Sátoraljaújhely, a small town near Hungary’s border with Slovakia.

Shisha smoking crackdown in Saudi

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of the Interior has asked the Control and Investigation Bureau (CIB) in Makkah to start cracking down on cafés in Jeddah disregarding the ban on smoking shisha and other tobacco products in enclosed public areas, according to a story in the Arab News.

The Jeddah Governorate had apparently sought the help of the CIB in enforcing the law.

A CIB team was expected to start work this week on compiling the names of café owners breaking the law.
The move comes after the governorate received reports about café owners serving shisha and tobacco in places where bans were in force.

The governorate has warned that it will punish mayors and employees of branch municipalities for not enforcing the law.

The Interior Ministry’s ban on smoking in enclosed public places includes cafés, restaurants and shopping centers and applies to shisha and other tobacco products.