Tobacco Asia

tobaccoasia 59 CLOSING NEWS 卷尾新闻 Huotraco's market manager, Guillaume Dubois, said that the end of the partnership with UTC would not hamper the brand name or disrupt availability of the product. "Fine King Size cigarettes is the number one cigarette brand in Cambodia and has been for many years," he said. "[Impe- rial] will continue to operate in Cambo- dia as before and there is no change in our strategy to continue to invest in Cambodia to develop our brands." Huotraco is also the distributor for other Imperial tobacco products such as Gauloises, Davidoff, West, Gitanes, L&B, Rizla, and Drum. JAPAN Appointments at JT and JTI Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) have announced a new set of executive officers. As of January 1, 2017, Shiroji Maeda has been appointed JT's senior vice president, chief marketing & sales officer; Kenji Ogura has been appointed senior vice president, head of leaf procurement group; and Takanori Kikuchi has been appointed senior vice president, general affairs. Chito Sasaki is now senior vice president, president, Japanese tobacco business; Koji Shimayoshi is senior vice president, head of tobacco business planning division; and Kiyohide Hirowatari is senior vice president, human resources. At JTI, Eddy Pirard is expected to succeed Thomas A. McCoy as president and chief executive officer on April 1, McCoy will be retiring on March 31. Pirard is currently JTI's executive vice president, business development, corporate affairs and corporate commu- nications. Prior to that he was JTI's regional president for UK and Ireland region and Western Europe. JAMAICA Carreras Says Higher Taxes = More Illicit Trade Carreras Limited has noted with grave concern the release from the Jamaican Ministry of Health advising that portfolio minister Dr. Christopher Tufton and his team are actively evaluating the World Health Organiza- tion's call for heavy taxation on the tobacco industry. The company said, "Even more alarming, is the release's reference to a report from WHO noting that if countries raised cigarette taxes by about 80 cents per pack, annual tax revenues could increase by 47%, amounting to an additional US$140 billion per year." Carreras also argued that the perspective that the demand for tobacco products will be stemmed by higher prices from heavy taxation is an erroneous one. "The truth is when prices are too high in comparison with the available income and what people are willing to pay, the opportunity and incentive for the illicit trade in cigarettes increases. This scenario is the current reality in Jamaica as years of successive and excessive levels of increase in tobacco excise, has led to an exponential increase in the presence of illegal cigarettes and a dramatic decline in legal cigarette volumes." According to Carreras, the legal market in Jamaica has declined by 100% in less than 10 years, with the lost volume going directly to illicit trade. The company estimates that the government has been suffering loss of revenue to the amount of almost $2 billion Jamaican on an annual basis. INDONESIA Stash of "Ganesha" Synthetic Tobacco Found Twenty-two kilograms of a new synthetic tobacco laced with cannabis chemicals called "Ganesha" was discovered in Indonesia's resort town of Puncak, near Bogor. Ganesha is reportedly 10 times more potent than Super Gorilla, also tobacco laced with cannabis compounds. "The user only has to inhale the smoke three times to become uncon- scious or pass out," said Bogor police's head of narcotics, Andri Alam Wijaya. According to the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), Super Gorilla tobacco's substances are absorbed by the lungs followed by other parts of the body, including the brain, after being smoked. Its users will feel like they are being crushed in a gorilla's embrace when using the tobacco, hence the name. The synthetic cannabinoid-type of drug can also induce effects such as psychotic episodes, agitation, aggression, anxiety, ideas of suicide as well as withdrawal and addiction syndrome. Some cases also include ischemic strokes, hypertension, chest pain, severe kidney failure, or even heart attacks. Indonesia's Health Ministry is currently finalizing a draft on regulations which would define substances contain- ing synthetic cannabis as Category I narcotics as per the nation's Law on Narcotics, which would place it the same category of drugs as heroin, cocaine and all-natural marijuana. IRELAND Price Hikes "Attack on the Poor" A call by the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) to keep raising taxes on cigarettes has been slammed as an "outrageous attack on the poor" by Forest Ireland, which represents adults who choose to smoke. A spokesperson for Forest Ireland, John Mallon, said, ""Raising taxes on tobacco is an outrageous attack on the poor and the elderly. It will fuel illicit trade and drive law-abiding citizens into the hands of criminal gangs. Tobacco is a legal product and consumers shouldn't be punished or treated like lepers for exercising their right to buy or consume it." He went on to say, "The ICS is behaving like the worst kind of school- yard bully. Instead of encouraging people to stop smoking through education they want to force people to quit using punitive taxation and other coercive measures." "It's very easy for senior executives with their high salaries to call for tax increases. If they have any empathy for ordinary people they should show a bit more compassion for those who enjoy smoking and are less well off."

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