Africa

After a year of strong growth in 2021, cigarette sales recorded a slight unit volume decline in Middle East and Africa in 2022. With disposable incomes under pressure in a lot of countries, illicit trade remains a problem in many of them. E-vaping…

Technological advances in 2024 will continue to reshape consumer behaviour. This annual report explores the top five digital shopper trends that will redefine commerce the most in the year ahead. Some of the trends included in this report’s edition…

This report examines inflation levels and drivers globally and in key countries in Q4 2023 and 2024. Global inflation is moderating, although divergence remains among the key economies. Higher volatility in the energy markets and disruption of…

While tobacco in Nigeria showed an improved performance in current value growth terms in 2022, this was mainly due to unit price hikes resulting from tax increases and inflationary pressures fuelled by the global recovery from the pandemic, the…

Cameroon was not as affected by the energy crisis stemming from the war in Ukraine as many other countries. Rising global energy prices in 2022 gave a boost to government coffers and helped stabilise the economy. However, ongoing civil conflict, as…

Overall demand for smokeless tobacco, e-vapour and heated tobacco products declined in Nigeria in 2022. The downturn was mainly explained by rapidly rising prices and the erosion of purchasing power among consumers as inflation soared due to the…

Retail volume sales of cigars, cigarillos and smoking tobacco declined sharply in 2022. As with cigarettes, demand was depressed by steep price hikes resulting from tax increases and a spike in inflation caused by the depreciation of the naira, the…

In a major development, authorities introduced a ban on shisha smoking in 2022, following other African countries such as Kenya, The Gambia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana. In addition, Mali also introduced a ban in 2022. According to the Ministry of…

Retail volume sales of cigarettes in Nigeria declined marginally in 2022. This was mainly because steep increases in unit prices gave many smokers a greater incentive to quit or cut down, particularly as high inflation eroded purchasing power and…

Cameroon was not as affected by the energy crisis stemming from the war in Ukraine as many other countries. Rising global energy prices in 2022 gave a boost to government coffers and helped stabilise the economy. However, ongoing civil conflict, as…

Tobacco in Uganda is dominated by British American Tobacco and local player Leaf Tobacco & Commodities, with sales limited to cigarettes. There has been a shift away from premium cigarette brands as rising prices have made cigarettes less affordable.…

The Tanzanian tobacco market witnessed further value growth in 2022. The dominant player in cigarettes, Tanzania Cigarette Co Ltd, recorded double-digit growth in gross profit. Smoking prevalence is rising, with attitudes to smoking changing and…

Tobacco in Ethiopia is dominated by the previously state-owned company National Tobacco Enterprise Ethiopia, which generates its revenues entirely from sales of cigarettes. While retail volume sales of tax-paid cigarettes are rising, retail sales…

Tobacco will remain popular in 2022, however, global inflation is having a negative impact on all categories within the industry. While inflation has not necessarily caused the prices of products to increase significantly, the price of food and other…

Tobacco use remains somewhat limited in Angola, with cigarettes remaining the most popular category in 2022. Moreover, despite more stringent tobacco control legislation, attitudes towards tobacco remain relatively favourable, while cigarettes are…

Tobacco use in Ghana remains low due to strong societal and cultural disapproval of smoking. It was further negatively impacted in 2022 by high unit price rises due to depreciation of the local currency and tax rises. Volume sales of cigarettes…

In 2022, the tobacco landscape in Kenya was shaped by ongoing inflation, rising price points and increasing health awareness. As such, premium cigarette brands continued to note a decline in sales, attributed to limited consumer budgets in the face…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of cigars and cigarillos plummeted. This was mainly due to the closures of establishments, as consumers of these products are usually social smokers that enjoy smoking these products in social settings. In…

There is a high level of illegal trade/counterfeit tobacco products in Kenya, especially cigarettes. These products manage to enter the country through porous borders and continuously pose a challenge to local manufacturers while damaging the overall…

2022 was a challenging year for tobacco in Tunisia, with current and constant value sales falling, as well as volume sales. This dismal picture was largely due to a double-digit fall in the volume sales of cigarettes and this was in spite of a…

In November 2021, the global tobacco giant Philip Morris entered heated tobacco and heating devices with its iQOS 3 Duo and HEETS brands, under the Régie Nationale des Tabacs et des Allumettes (RNTA) umbrella. One year on, heated tobacco registered…

Tunisians are big fans of hookah smoking, which is widely smoked in cafés in Tunisia. This sector is dominated by foreign brands such as Mazaya, Al Fakher, and Adalya, which are smuggled into Tunisia on the black market and available from traditional…

It was a negative year for cigarettes in 2022, with a significant fall in volume sales and with illicit sales accounting for over a quarter of volume sales – a figure that has been increasing since 2020. This was in spite of smoking prevalence…

After a strong recovery in economic activity during 2021 with GDP growth of more than 7%, the performance of Morocco’s economy stood at 1.3% in 2022 due to an unfavourable economic situation, especially for the agricultural sector, which was strongly…

Since the introduction of its heated tobacco device Iqos in November 2021, Philip Morris has continued to invest in opening its own stores in large cities in Morocco where Iqos retails at MAD750, while HEETS heated tobacco sticks are sold in…

Sales of cigars, cigarillos and smoking tobacco rebound in 2022 due to the reopening of cafés and bars, and the surge in tourism. These products are mainly consumed in on-trade outlets, which account for more than 80% of total cigars and smoking…

After an increase in the Internal Consumption Tax (TIC) on tobacco in January 2021, there was a rise in April 2021 and further increase in January 2023, building on the increase from 2020. This had a particularly pronounced effect on volume sales of…

The monopoly over the manufacturing of cigarettes in Egypt by the state-owned Eastern Co. came to an end in 2022, when the United Tobacco Company (UTC), a subsidiary of Philip Morris International (PMI), started manufacturing cigarettes. This…

Cigarettes showed only moderate retail volume growth in Algeria in 2022. The Algerian economy is witnessing rising inflation, which is eroding the purchasing power of lower and middle income consumer groups and reducing their expenditure on tobacco.…

Consuming smokeless tobacco has always been legal in Algeria. Loose US-style moist snuff, known locally as Chemma, is the only smokeless tobacco product available, and is traditionally popular in Algeria, although it is consumed by men much more than…

In 2022, the government imposed a new tax on heated tobacco products, adding 10% of the price towards comprehensive health insurance, in addition to the table tax, at EGP1,400/kg of tobacco. This contributed to the price growth for the category in…

During 2022, prices for cigars, cigarillos, and smoking tobacco witnessed multiple increases due to the rising costs across their supply chains and import challenges due to currency hardships. With China and other European countries massively growing…

Expensive and lacking in popularity, cigars and cigarillos sales declined in retail volume terms in 2022. Indeed, the category continues to shrink in size as there is no real tradition for smoking cigars and cigarillos in Algeria. Cigars are not…

During 2022, the prices for cigarettes rose multiple times throughout the year, across all brands, with prices recording a growth between EGP4 and EGP6 during the year. The continuous rising costs associated with production, logistics, and…

Retail volume sales and current value growth of cigarettes slowed down in Algeria in 2022 compared with the previous year of the review period, even though the Algerian government has not actively engaged in anti-smoking campaigns or expanded access…

Following the dynamic growth seen in tobacco products sales in 2021, which helped the market recoup all the current value losses it suffered due to the pandemic in 2020, a much less dynamic performance was seen in current value terms in 2022, with…

Fine cut tobacco’s value proposition was helping drive demand for this product in 2022. In comparison to its more expensive competitor, cigarettes, fine cut tobacco does not have to factor in the manufacturing cost of creating a ready-to-smoke…

Tobacco faced sanctions in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, which saw all tobacco product sales temporarily prohibited, encouraging the illicit trade in cigarettes, which accounted for around a third of overall sales in this year. Following the…

Fine cut tobacco’s value proposition was helping drive demand for this product in 2022. In comparison to its more expensive competitor, cigarettes, fine cut tobacco does not have to factor in the manufacturing cost of creating a ready-to-smoke…

Now in its seventh edition, this report explores the top digital shopper trends that will redefine commerce the most in the year ahead. Some of the trends included in this edition touch on topics such as second-hand shopping, community group buying,…

This report examines inflation levels and drivers globally and in key countries. Global inflation is reaching a peak, although geopolitical risks and uncertainty in the energy market remain key risks. The impact varies between countries, with…

Heated tobacco products continued to perform well in 2021, with major players such as Philip Morris South Africa (Pty) Ltd British American Tobacco (South Africa) Ltd both registering significant growth for their tobacco heating devices Iqos and Glo,…

The briefing introduces the Cities Households Necessities Spending Index. The index ranks 1,075 cities by household expenditure on non-discretionary items, namely food, housing, and clothing and footwear. This analysis focuses on 160 major cities.…

Slower growth, surging inflation, rising geopolitical risks and an accelerating deglobalisation trend are factors shaping the global economic, financial and trade landscape in 2022 and beyond. Despite the challenges, there are opportunities for…

This report considers what socialising will look like in a post-COVID-19 era, focusing on several key questions. A return to the “Roaring Twenties” in the beverages space or a continuing decimation of the on-trade? How has socialising changed (eg…

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the consumer goods market in Sub-Saharan Africa, with recovery expected to take place over time. Consumers expenditure has been negatively affected, as value seeking consumers shift to essential products. The…

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has triggered the most severe global recession since World War II. In Q4 2020, the end of the pandemic started as countries began administering effective vaccines among the population; however, vaccine distribution…

Almost uniquely among fmcg industries, tobacco legislation is not simply a guiding element or a means of enforcing consumer standards but a central determining factor in the performance of tobacco markets. As the cumulative de-normalising impact of…