Even without tax increases, tobacco sales continue to decline in France

The years go by and look the same on the tobacco market. For the third year in a row, cigarette sales fell further, report The echoes, a decrease of 6.2% which follows a decrease of 1.3% (2020) and 6.5% (2019). Particularly interesting figures note our colleagues, while there has been no increase in taxes since November 2020. At that time, the price of the package had already risen to ten euros or more.

The fall is even more glaring if we take into account the last five years. As far as cigarettes are concerned, sales fell by almost a quarter (24.5%), against 17.5% for roll-your-own tobacco and 20% for cigars and cigarillos. In terms of volumes, tobacconists received 33.5 billion cigarettes. It was 35.8 billion in 2020, specify The echoes.

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Towards a 15 euro package?

How to explain this decrease when the Covid-19 pandemic, and the various confinements, could have accelerated sales for example? If cross-border purchases have fallen sharply and tobacconists have seen their sales spiked, in 2020, the French have for some more smoked, but “consumption has not resumed during the pandemic”, analysis from our colleagues, Gérard Audureau , president of the association, DNF-Demain will be non-smoker. For him, it is also “the success of the national tobacco control program”.

Despite the drop in revenue from tobacco rights in 2021, a packet of cigarettes is sold today on average 10.17 euros. Since November 2020, prices have therefore stabilized, and this mainly impacts manufacturers who have much lower leeway. Gérard Audureau underlines the effectiveness of the campaign launched in 2017 under Edouard Philippe and Agnès Buzyn, and wishes to recall that the number of references has melted, from 800 to around 200 today. But some like Marlboro have implemented new features, which is why the DNF-Demain will be non-smoking association is already pleading for the package “to 15 euros in 2025”.