In 2013, sales of cigarettes rose 0.3% to figure of 21.1bn cigarettes, according to industry data provided by Marlboro maker Philip Morris International and reported in today’s Telegraph.
The increase follows four straight years of declines in sales in Australia, and covers the first full year since Australia became the world’s first country to ban branded tobacco packaging in December 2012.
News of the increase will raise questions over the effectiveness of the plain packaging policy, under which olive-green coloured tobacco packs carry no branding but instead carry large graphic images of the negative health effects of smoking and the brand name in a small, standardised font.
Those in favour of removing branding from packaging have long argued that the move will help remove the desirability of smoking.
However, some in the retail, packaging and tobacco sectors have put forward a counter-argument that standardising packs will instead lead to smokers buying on price rather than brand, and therefore potentially buying more, cheaper cigarettes.
Eoin Dardis, director of corporate affairs for Philip Morris in Britain, told the Telegraph: “When you commoditise a product, people go after the price.
“If people are buying cheaper stuff, maybe they’re smoking more of it, I don’t know… It’s definitely a point of interest and that’s something that absolutely needs to be explored because that’s the counter of what this policy was seeking to achieve.”
Publication of the figures comes just days before Sir Cyril Chantler is expected to publish his report for the UK government on the potential impacts of introducing similar legislation in the UK.
Other countries including New Zealand and Ireland are also looking at versions of the policy.
Mike Ridgway, who acts as a spokesman for seven UK tobacco packaging manufacturers, told PN the figures “again demonstrate how inconclusive the introduction of plain packaging has been” in Australia.
He said: “The UK packaging industry has been saying for some considerable time there is no point in introducing more and more regulation when there is no evidence that it is or will be effective.
“There really does need to be a pause on this onward trend of regulation and a period of reflection concerning all this especially where there is , as reported from Australia today , that there is no evidence that it’s having the desired effect of reducing smoking levels by young people.”
Plain tobacco packaging was the subject of a roundtable event organised by Packaging News and Essentra Packaging last month ahead of publication of the Chantler review. Watch the video below to get up to speed with how players across the industry see the potential changes.
