Tobacco.org

• Revealed: £2bn cost to UK from cigarette smuggling  

At the Ukrainian-Polish border town of Przemysl, the seizure of 4,500 cigarettes hardly solicits a reaction. The border guards know the discovery will barely impact on one of Europe's fastest-growing forms of organised crime.

For criminal gangs from the Mafia to the Triads, cigarette smuggling is the new cash cow, and governments, companies and taxpayers are suffering the consequences.

Europe's growing addiction to cigarette smuggling is burning a £7bn hole in the pockets of governments in western Europe through lost tax revenues, and leaving companies including UK-listed British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Tobacco nursing some £600m in lost sales each year.

While the problem starts in many of the former Soviet-bloc countries and other parts of the developing world, the effects are being felt on streets across the UK.

The illegal import of cigarettes that are either produced in counterfeit factories or legally purchased in low tax jurisdictions and smuggled into Britain is growing by the day and tobacco industry insiders question how it will ever be stopped.

Criminal gangs are using increasingly creative means to flood Britain with smuggled packs of Marlboro, Superkings or Lambert & Butler, or eastern European brands such as Classics or Jin Ling.

This month it emerged that children in the north east of England are being recruited to act as mules on smuggling missions. Seduced by the offer of cut-price air tickets and spending money, teenagers are flying to low-duty countries to fill their suitcases with cigarettes, returning to Britain to pass them on to criminal gangs.

Four schoolgirls aged 15 and 16 who live near Durham narrowly avoided jail after being caught smuggling 200,000 cigarettes into Britain. . . .

As the recession rocks the UK, demand for low-cost cigarettes is growing, driven by the dominant view that this is a victimless crime. However, tobacco industry insiders and customs officials suggest it is anything but. . . .

Cigarette companies have received some of the blame, with critics arguing that the "Big 4" – Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco, BAT and Imperial – over-produce in Ukraine, knowing their products will be smuggled elsewhere. Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco agreed in 2004 to pay a combined $1.65bn (£1bn) to the European Union and member states amid allegations they were involved in smuggling. However, recent signs suggest the cigarette manufacturers are now taking a different approach.

Poland's smuggling problem dates back to 2004 when the country joined the EU, since when the government has been raising tobacco duty levels to meet EU targets – twice this year alone.

However, higher duties in Poland have only heightened the disparity with taxes and tobacco sale prices in neighbouring countries such as Ukraine and Russia. . . .

"Once the line opens, the situation will get worse. Then you will see not only cigarettes but counterfeit handbags, medical products and clothing," he warns.

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• Katowice man taking tobacco makers to task  

A Katowice resident has put the tobacco industry on alert with the filing of a lawsuit this month against Philip Morris Polska and Zakłady Przemysłu Tytoniowego in Radom.

Stanisław Lubicz-Sienicki is seeking zł. 10 million ($2.56 million) in damages from tobacco firms for the death of his mother, who died of lung cancer this summer and smoked Popularne and Marlboro brands of cigarettes, according to press reports.

Despite the slew of cases that have beleaguered Philip Morris and other producers in the United States, the lawsuit here caught Polish tobacco producers by surprise. But lawyers and tobacco makers downplayed the impact of the suit and said Lubicz-Sienicki and, perhaps others, face a steep uphill battle here.

"Frankly, we are surprised that there is such a case in Poland because the fact that smoking is damaging is universally known in our country," said Robert Wyszyński, a legal adviser with Phillip Morris Polska. "Despite the fact that it is universally known, Mr. Lubicz filed a claim."

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Polish police arrest 21 in anti-smuggling operation 

Investigators have arrested 21 suspects in raids against a cigarette-smuggling operation between Ukraine and Italy, thought to have generated millions of dollars, police said Tuesday.

The smuggling gang, which moved their cargoes through several European countries, had defrauded the EU authorities of at least eight million zloty (1.75 million euros, 2.46 million dollars), said police.

The gang was based in both Poland and Italy and had been active from January 2006, said a statement from the Lublin provincial police headquarters, eastern Poland.

They had smuggled at least 53 sizable shipments of contraband cigarettes between the two countries, via Romania, Austria, Greece, Slovenia and Croatia.

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Doc wants tumors shown on cigarette packs  

A Polish cancer specialist suggested Sunday printing images of tumors on cigarette packs could deter people from smoking.

Speaking on No Tobacco Day, Witold Zatonski, an oncologist professor, said it is important to aggressively confront smokers with printed graphic images every time they take a cigarette from the pack.

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Poland seizes illegal cigarette factory 

Polish police said they arrested 13 people on suspicion they were running an illegal cigarette factory in southwestern Poland.

Sixty police and Customs officers Monday raided a building in the town of Kuznica Piaskowa, in the Silesia region, and confiscated 8.5 million cigarettes and 22 tons of shredded tobacco, Polish Radio said Tuesday.

Police said they believed it was the largest illegal cigarette producing plant ever uncovered in the country.

Four of the 13 arrested people were Ukrainian nationals

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EuroTab 2009, Krakow, Poland: International Tobacco Products and Accessories Fair 

EuroTab 2009 International Tobacco Products and Accessories Fair June 18 - 20, 2009 - Targi w Krakowie - Krakow, Poland The dates have been set. EuroTab 2009 will take place in Krakow, Poland, from June 18 - 20. So mark your calendars and get ready for the largest pan-European tobacco-related retail and distribution show to date. EuroTab brings together tobacco industry professionals from all over Europe, as well as from North America, Russia and the Former Soviet Republics, the Baltic and Balkan countries, Turkey, and the Near and Middle East.

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• Poland to ban indoor smoking  

Poland will ban smoking in indoor public places and in passenger cars if children are in them, Polish Radio said.

Smoking will be illegal in all enclosed public places nationwide, probably by the end of this year, the report said. . . .

Managers of pubs and clubs will be permitted to decide whether to allow smoking in their establishments if they provide separate non-smoking rooms with "doors that close automatically," the Polish Radio said.

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• Polish hostel fire kills 21 homeless and poor  

A fire swept through a shelter for homeless and poor families in northwest Poland yesterday, killing 21 people and forcing parents to toss children from windows into the arms of rescuers below.

A resident of the shelter said the fire that destroyed the two-storey building in the town of Kamien Pomorski might have been caused by someone who fell asleep with a lit cigarette.

"Twenty-one people are dead," said Daniel Kowalinski, a spokesman for firefighters at the scene of the blaze.

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'Warsaw Ghetto cigarette seller' dies aged 83  

Between medical treatments for cancer, Jorek Plonski, 83, used to travel from his home on Kibbutz Megiddo in the north to Givat Haviva, between Haifa and Tel Aviv, to help create a museum commemorating typical Polish towns before the Holocaust and tell young people about his time in the Warsaw Ghetto and his experiences as one of a group of Jewish children who sold cigarettes in the city's Three Crosses Square. . . .

The story of the young cigarette sellers was described in Joseph Ziemian's 2005 book "The Cigarette Sellers of Three Crosses Square."

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Two Poles sentenced for killing over cigarette 

Two Polish men were sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for stabbing a man to death after he refused to give them a cigarette, local media reported.

A court in the eastern city of Bialystok sentenced the two men for stabbing a 27-year-old more than 20 times with a knife at a bus stop

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Government tries to block EU excise hike on tobacco  

The governent will oppose a planned EU directive designed to raise the excise duty on cigarettes and thin-cut tobacco, as it would result in dramatic price increases, the Finance Ministry announced on Tuesday. . . .

While Poland would be given an extra year to introduce the hike, the new rules would eventually raise cigarette prices by 50%, hitting sales and fuelling demand for black market sources or illegal substances, according to Krzysztof Kępiński of BAT Polska.

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Polish Cigarette Traders Bemoan Tougher Rules for EU’s Frontier  

It’s Christmas in frozen eastern Poland, and Pawel Mlynarski is blaming the government for taking away his livelihood: contraband cigarettes.

Until recently, Mlynarski, a 25-year-old unemployed builder, would cross the border into Ukraine as many as four times a night. Each time, he would return with at least one carton of 200 cigarettes, or 10 packs, to sell in the bars of his hometown of Przemysl, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the European Union’s eastern frontier.

Then, on Dec. 1, Poland cut the import allowance to 40 smokes, or two packs. “This is an absolute tragedy,” says Mlynarski, who used to make as much as 20 zloty ($6.80) per carton selling packs of Prima. “Most people around here did the border. It was our only way of earning decent cash.”

The new limits are a result of the EU’s expansion a year ago of its passport-free movement of people, the so-called Schengen area, to include Poland.

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• Smuggling cigarettes in Schengen Poland 

I’m standing on the crooked pavement of the square in front of the tatty Terespol railway station. Belarus is only a few kilometers east from here. Against the gloomy backdrop of the townlet buildings a new, nicely smelling white board stands out, complete with the Polish and European Union flags. Soon I’ll know that it is the only wordly feature of this town which has found itself on the way to economic collapse. The Saturday morning silence is broken only by the whistle of the train leaving for Brest and the barking of a homeless mongrel. What’s it like to live here? I ask myself, going 'downtown'. . . .

''The prices have gone up as the customs officers are more difficult to bribe' - smugglers

'Rubbish!' responds assistant superintendent Cezary Grochowski, the spokesperson for the Municipal Police Department in Biała Podlaska, to the boys’ allegations. 'The policemen and border guards go out of their way to dispose of the smugglers, once and for all.' He does admit, however, that individual cases still crop up, but, in his opinion, the times of smuggling are over. . . .

Lean years on the eastern partition had begun long before Poland became part of the Schengen zone. Since the introduction of the Russian embargo on Polish meat, more and more meat plants have collapsed like a house of cards. Both legal and illegal trade with Belarus had flourished until 21 December 2007, so it was possible to make up for the losses. Today, Terespol citizens are fearful of what the future may bring.

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Tobacco in Poland - New Research Report on Companies and Markets 

Tobacco in Poland industry profile is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the tobacco industry. It includes detailed data on market size and segmentation, plus textual and graphical analysis of the key trends and competitive landscape, leading companies and demographic information.

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波兰将出台在公共场所禁烟法律草案 

根据波兰议会健康委员会不久前制定的草案，波兰将禁止在所有公共场所吸烟，禁烟场合包括医院和诊所、学校、工作单位、影剧院、旅馆、火车站、机场及公共汽车站。

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