Non-domesticated tobacco consumption in Spain rose in the first half of the year and now represents 10.2% of the total, double what it was in the same period last year (5.2%), according to the latest Empty Packet Survey (EPS) conducted by consultancy Ipsos. That noticeable increase Breaks the downtrend That was recorded in the last decade and puts the percentage of informal tobacco consumption at 2017 levels.
“We don’t know for sure what caused this rebound, but one factor that may have caused it is that on January 1 there was a tax adjustment in Spain, which… It caused prices to rise “This could encourage the consumer to seek to buy tobacco in other markets,” says Rocio Ingelmo, Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs at Altadis, who on Thursday opens the 10th Congress against Tobacco Smuggling, in La Linea de la Concepción (Cádiz).
This non-domestic tobacco includes smuggled and counterfeit goods, but also that Purchased legally in other countries or in the Canary Islandswhich has a lower tax rate than the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. In this sense, Engelma highlights that “Spain is surrounded by markets where tobacco prices are lower, such as Gibraltar, Andorra and Portugal” and asks the government to be “rational” in its fiscal policy.
“Although Andorra and Gibraltar are doing their bit by gradually increasing taxes on tobacco and shrinking the price differential, in Spain we have to realize that we have those cheaper nearby markets, because if fiscal policies are too aggressive, it will translate into… The consumer will buy his package abroad “Tax collection will decrease instead of rising,” Engelmo explained, noting that non-domestic tobacco consumption caused losses of 467 million euros to the public treasury in the first half of the year.
“France is the clearest example because it decided to double the price of tobacco to reduce the spread of smoking. The result is that… Their illicit levels have reached 40%.“Without being able to reduce consumption as this measure was intended,” says Engelmo. In fact, Spanish tobacco sellers near the French border have had a field day because the price of tobacco in Spain is still lower than in France: “The same thing is happening with the Netherlands, which has raised the price a lot and sees how consumers in Germany buy it.”
Extremadura and Andalusia, the areas most affected by autonomy
Extremadura (26.7%) and Andalusia (23.7%), due to their proximity to Portugal and Gibraltar, are the two communities most affected by illicit tobacco consumption, with a significant difference compared to the rest, because the third community is Castilla and León, which represents 9.9% of the total. However, in the first half of the year there was Increase in illicit consumption in all autonomous regionsAccording to a study conducted by Ipsos.
In terms of the city, it is clear that proximity to these cheap markets leads to informal tobacco consumption: in Algeciras, the capital of Campo Gibraltar, 96% of packages were analyzed They do not have the corresponding tax stamp from the Ministry of Finance. This means that seeing a legal tender package in the city of Cádiz is like finding a four-leaf clover.
Among the ten Spanish cities with the highest rates of non-domestic tobacco consumption, Nine of them are located in Andalusia: Algeciras (96%), Almería (28.6%), Seville (26.4%), Dos Hermanas (23.8%), Cádiz (20.9%), Marbella (20.8%), Jaén (20.4%), Cordoba (19.5%) and Huelva (17.8%). Another city to complete the top ten is Badajoz (26.7%), which borders Portugal and is third in the ranking.
“Fake tobacco is out of health control”
Ingelmo is also focusing on counterfeit tobacco, which rose in the first half of the year to represent 1.7% of the total, six tenths more than in the same period last year (1.1%). “The trade in this tobacco is illegal It has grown a lot since the Covid pandemic“Because before it was practically non-existent.”
On the same Wednesday, the Civil Guard dismantled a criminal organization in Seville dedicated to the manufacture, distribution and sale of smuggled tobacco packets, arresting a total of 45 people. The organization obtained tobacco leaves and He proceeded to cut and process them without sanitary and hygienic supervisionIn places that lack adequate facilities and have obvious dirt. Moreover, the tobacco lacked identification marks of its origin. Six other secret facilities were dismantled in the first half of the year, most of them in Andalusia and the Valencian region.
Although it is clear that all types of tobacco are harmful to health, Engelmo emphasizes that illegally manufactured tobacco can be even more harmful to the consumer: “This counterfeit tobacco is completely out of health control. Tobacco companies have to inform the Ministry of Health.” What each one of the ingredients is Of our different brands of tobacco, but we have no idea what these illegal factories produce.
“It serves as an example that the National Police itself reflected in one of its operations that workers who were detained in an illegal factory and who worked in an industrial warehouse in absolutely unsanitary conditions, They did not smoke the tobacco they made themselves.But they were smoking legal tobacco. “This gives you an idea of the ingredients they will use,” he explains.
It also ensures that these secret facilities located in industrial or rural areas, which contain all types of machines for manufacturing and packing cigarettes, are They use tobacco leaves that are brought from abroad: “There was no tobacco of Spanish origin in any of the factories dismantled in recent years. Although in Spain we have a region that produces raw tobacco, namely Extremadura, the raw materials used by this mafia usually come from other countries such as Romania or Bulgaria.”
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