Due to COVID-19, Duty-Free Store Usage Declines... Last Year's Tobacco Sales Increased by 4.1%

Absorbing Duty-Free Cigarette Demand... Last Year's Cigarette Sales Up 4.1%

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic causing a sharp decline in overseas travel, domestic tobacco demand also increased last year.

According to the "2020 Tobacco Market" report released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 29th, tobacco sales last year amounted to 3.59 billion packs, a 4.1% increase compared to the same period the previous year. This was because the demand for duty-free tobacco was absorbed into the domestic tobacco market as overseas travel sharply declined due to COVID-19. Last year, duty-free tobacco sales dropped by 70.2% to 6.6 million packs compared to the previous year.

However, compared to 4.36 billion packs in 2014 before the tobacco price increase, this represents a 17.7% decrease, indicating that the effects of smoking cessation policies are continuing. Sales volume is calculated based on the amount tobacco companies sold to retailers such as convenience stores.

The electronic cigarette market grew. Heated tobacco product sales reached 379 million packs, a 4.5% increase from the same period last year. On the other hand, last year’s CSV electronic cigarette sales plummeted by 97.6% to 400,000 pods from 16.9 million pods the previous year. The Ministry of Economy and Finance explained that this is due to the continued impact of the 2019 recommendation to stop using liquid-type electronic cigarettes.

Meanwhile, last year’s excise tax revenue was 12 trillion won, increasing by 8.7% as the shipment volume rose by 8.3% to 3.64 billion packs from 3.36 billion packs the previous year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.