SALES of cigarettes have slumped yet again, with experts pointing to a rise in smuggling and smokers puffing less. Figures from Revenue showed that excise was paid on just more than 4.1 billion cigarettes in Ireland last year, down by more than 10pc from a year earlier. Sales quantities have been on a continuous downward trend for the past five years and are now down by a quarter from 2006. However, rises in duty on cigarettes have ensured that the revenue earned for the Exchequer is still on a par with five years ago at €1.1bn. The one area that has seen an increase in demand in recent year ... Jump to full article >>

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel urged a ban on menthol cigarettes because they believe a ban would be beneficial to public health. Research done by the Tobacco Product Scientific Advisory Committee over the past year has concluded that menthol makes cigarettes more enticing for youths and African Americans, thus making it harder for these groups to quit smoking. Menthol is an active pharmaceutical ingredient that can be found in throat lozenges and cold and cough medicines. The amount of menthol in medicine is regulated by the FDA, but before this study the amount of menthol in ... Jump to full article >>

Cuban officials say cigar sales rebounded slightly in 2010 after plummeting the previous year amid the global economic crisis. Government-run tobacco company Habanos SA says sales were $368 million last year, a rise of 2 percent. That followed an 8 percent drop in 2009. Habanos vice president Javier Terres said Monday that the company is “moderately satisfied.” Terres said the top buyers of the premium, hand-rolled Cuban cigars were Spain, France and China — which replaced Germany as the third-biggest importer. Habanos is a mixed company comprising British-owned, Madrid-base ... Jump to full article >>

A growing number of super-rich Chinese puffing away on Imperial Tobacco’s luxury Cuban cigars helped the Montecristo maker deliver better than expected sales for the last three months of 2010. The Bristol- based firm behind Lambert & Butler and Golden Virginia surprised the market with a return to sales growth following a difficult 12 months in which fewer smokers sparked up in Russia, Spain and the Ukraine. Demand for value brands and sales of its products in emerging markets boosted cigarette volumes, up 0.5pc, and total stick volumes (cigarette and fine-cut tobacco), up 1.2pc. T ... Jump to full article >>

Saskatchewan pharmacies will stop selling tobacco products as of April 1, 2011, Health Minister Don McMorris said Monday. McMorris released the province’s tobacco reduction strategy as he opened a two-day symposium that brings together health officials from across Saskatchewan. He later told reporters the government is delaying the ban on pharmacy tobacco sales by several months. “A lot of pharmacies have to change the design of the store and we’re giving them time to do that,” McMorris told reporters Monday. “We had thought that we would be able to implement this ... Jump to full article >>

San Francisco supervisors today gave final approval to expand the city’s ban on tobacco sales at stores with pharmacies but postponed a vote on overturning a mayoral veto of a fee on alcohol wholesalers. An expansion of the city’s ban on tobacco sales at stores with pharmacies–which would include grocery and big-box stores such as Safeway, Lucky and Costco–was approved at a second board vote this afternoon, and Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office indicated the mayor will sign it. Supporters have said that cigarette sales at stores that also sell medicines sends a mixed me ... Jump to full article >>

The Bismarck City Commission nipped a proposed ban on all tobacco sales in the butt Tuesday. Yet, an ordinance that allows smoking huts for city bars moves forward to a Sept. 28 public hearing. A revision to the hut law might give bar owners until April to build them. The actions come just weeks after commissioners approved a smoking ban in all city bars to start Nov. 1. Commissioners acted early at the meeting on Tuesday. Commissioner Brenda Smith asked that the proposed ban on all tobacco sales be pulled from the agenda; then made it clear she opposed it. “I don’t think this is even some ... Jump to full article >>

Central Wisconsin cities are selling fewer permits to allow cigarette sales, and it’s not just related to the statewide smoking ban. About the same time the smoking ban went into effect, July 1, a change in federal law regulating cigarette vending machines was implemented, said Marshfield City Clerk Deb Hall, whose office sells the licenses for cigarette sales. Federal law bans cigarette vending ma-chines in any establishment where children are allowed. “Since children can accompany their parents to a tavern and a lot of taverns used vending machines for cigarette sales, we didn ... Jump to full article >>

Cigarette sales at traditional outlets have taken a serious tumble in the Rochester region and statewide since a sharply higher state tax took effect in July. “I’d say sales are down 30 percent,” Scott Hardenbrook, manager at Di Prima’s Fairport Mobil, 1311 Fairport Road, said Wednesday. “The drop began as soon as the tax took effect. Some people are going to the discount brands. Some are going to the cigarillos. Some are going to the reservations. But everybody is complaining.” On July 1, the excise tax on cigarettes increased from $2.75 to $4.35 a pack, th ... Jump to full article >>

Castro, Churchill and Kennedy enjoyed a puff, but Cuban cigar exports have fallen by two-thirds in three years. Smoking bans and recession are stubbing out Cuba’s cigar industry, signalling a hostile era for a product whose mystique once captivated the likes of Winston Churchill, John F Kennedy and Fidel Castro. The latest harvest of 22.4m leaves was 14% down on last year, according to figures published this week, continuing a decline which has seen the number of cigars produced for export plunge from 217m in 2006 to 73m last year. “There was a reduction in planting due to limitati ... Jump to full article >>

Day after its major rival Philip Morris, the second-largest tobacco maker across the nation Reynolds American revealed its first quarter profits report. The company registered an $82 million growth in the revenues, regardless of hefty cigarette taxes, reduction in cigarette sales and growing competition in the U.S. tobacco market. Susan Ivey, Reynolds’s top executive declared that the company’s major market segments – cigarettes and smokeless tobacco – showed an impressive performance, recording growths in both market share and net incomes, while smokeless tobacco made a much higher p ... Jump to full article >>