SPAIN (Agencies) Cigarette sales went down by 32.57% in January, compared to December 2010, according to the Treasury, and by 34.03% when compared to January of last year. For the first time since these figures have been published, the number of cigarette packets sold was under the 200 million mark in a year; 194,770,461 to be exact. The descent has susprised even the Comité Nacional de Prevención del Tabaquismo (CNPT, or National Prevention of Tobacco Addiction Committee), which had not forecast such a sharp descent. Their prediction was>for a descent of 4 or 5% because of the new law, and another 5% due to the rise in taxes that began in December. The President of CNPT, Rodrigo Córdoba, believes there are other factors that have influenced the decrease in sales, one of which, he says, is a 30% increase in people wanting to quit smoking. Another, is that sales at frontier points may have fallen sharply because it is less attractive for those on the other side of the border to buy their cigarettes in Spain.
The tobacco industry's federation is of the opposite opinion. The Asociación Española de Tabacaleras (AET) says that there is a difference between sales and usage. "It could be that, following the price rise in December and that of VAT in January, more illegal, contraband, cogarettes are being smoked, as opposed to that sold legally," they say. "That, and the crisis."
In any case, sales for roll-up and pipe tobacco have rocketed by 38%: 316,779 kilos in January 2010 against 436,997 in 2011.
On a more local level, as we have pointed out before, there is a marked increase in the number of seizures of contraband tobacco, as well as that of road checks and the amounts seized. It is no longer rare to read of a car being caught with thousands of packets being transported to other more far away places. The usual outlets for smuggled tobacco (about which we only hear about, of course), bars and restaurants, also report that their sales of under the counter tobacco have dropped, especially as related to the erstwhile popular brands such as Marlboro or Chesterfield, which now cost at least €3.75 a pack. Other, less well known brands are selling better, we understand from a very unscientific survey. (By the way, our regular readers will know that our boss, Prospero, gave up smoking last June ...)
Another interesting, related statistic comes from the Ministry of Labour, which comes up with a provisional effect of the new anti-smoking law: Employment in bars and restaurants increased by 0.2% in January, compared to the same month in 2010. The figure contradicts, at least for the time being, industry predictions of some 20,000 job losses.
The tobacco industry's federation is of the opposite opinion. The Asociación Española de Tabacaleras (AET) says that there is a difference between sales and usage. "It could be that, following the price rise in December and that of VAT in January, more illegal, contraband, cogarettes are being smoked, as opposed to that sold legally," they say. "That, and the crisis."
In any case, sales for roll-up and pipe tobacco have rocketed by 38%: 316,779 kilos in January 2010 against 436,997 in 2011.
On a more local level, as we have pointed out before, there is a marked increase in the number of seizures of contraband tobacco, as well as that of road checks and the amounts seized. It is no longer rare to read of a car being caught with thousands of packets being transported to other more far away places. The usual outlets for smuggled tobacco (about which we only hear about, of course), bars and restaurants, also report that their sales of under the counter tobacco have dropped, especially as related to the erstwhile popular brands such as Marlboro or Chesterfield, which now cost at least €3.75 a pack. Other, less well known brands are selling better, we understand from a very unscientific survey. (By the way, our regular readers will know that our boss, Prospero, gave up smoking last June ...)
Another interesting, related statistic comes from the Ministry of Labour, which comes up with a provisional effect of the new anti-smoking law: Employment in bars and restaurants increased by 0.2% in January, compared to the same month in 2010. The figure contradicts, at least for the time being, industry predictions of some 20,000 job losses.
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