Eastern Europe

Closed system single use e-vapour products continued to register outstanding sales growth in Latvia in 2022, in the process recording the most impressive performance of any category across the country’s tobacco market during the year. These products…

Sales of cigarillos boomed in 2020 and 2021. Part of this growth stemmed from the excise tax tariff on these products, which allowed players to be more flexible with their pricing. Price fighter cigarillos in particular saw exceptional growth in…

2022 saw significant declines in demand for cigars and cigarillos. In cigars, the sales declines registered in 2022 form part of long-term negative sales trends that have been evident in the category for many years. In cigarillos meanwhile, declining…

Retail volume sales of cigarettes continued declining in 2022 and at a faster rate than during the previous year. Consumers are already aware of the threat posed by smoking, but the pandemic created a more immediate threat which served as further…

Retail volume sales of cigarettes generated positive growth during 2022, despite the declines seen in smoking prevalence in the country over the course of the year. The main reason for this seemingly anomalous situation is the significant decline…

As with all fmcg industries in the country, the war has strongly impacted the tobacco market in Ukraine. For example, there is a much-diminished consumer base, with approximately eight million people – some 20% of the population – estimated to have…

Overall, the picture remained bleak for cigarettes in Estonia in 2022, with the category seeing a further sizeable drop in volume sales during the year. Several factors led to the volume decline in cigarettes. More people gave up smoking completely,…

Closed system single use was amongst the strongest performers in smokeless tobacco, e-vapour products and heated tobacco in 2022, albeit from a low base. The category’s rapid expansion was in part down to the emergence of closed system single use…

Although heated tobacco recorded declining sales in both volume and real value (at constant 2022 prices) terms, it managed to register modest growth in current value terms in 2022, which was seen as not too bad a performance given Ukraine was…

Cigars, cigarillos and smoking tobacco all recorded major sales declines in unit volume terms in 2022, hit by a marked reduction in the assortment that was available as well as frequent out-of-stock situations, which were related to economic, import…