Iraq’s tobacco industry began to struggle for positive volume growth in 2022 despite the rapid growth seen in reduced harm options such as heated tobacco and e-vapour products. In most cases, local smokers are intent on reducing the amount they smoke or, in some cases, quitting altogether, and this has undermined demand in cigarettes and pipe tobacco, in particular.
Volume sales of cigarettes declined in 2022 despite smoking prevalence in Iraq increasing as the numbers of smokers among the local population continue to grow. The main factors underpinning rising smoking prevalence include the increasing appeal of smoking for younger people, with many young Iraqis starting to smoke before they are old enough to buy cigarettes legally, and major economic and social change which has made smoking more appealing and accessible for both young men and women.
Cigarette smoking is no longer subject to the taboos that previously applied to tobacco use in Iraq and this is a result of social changes and urbanisation during the post-conflict era. However, smoking is no means considered virtuous or even desirable among the majority of Iraqis, including many smokers.
While smoking is becoming more socially accepted among the population of Iraq, many of the country’s smokers are also looking for tobacco products that are potentially less harmful than cigarettes. This has encouraged many of the leading players in Iraq’s tobacco industry to shift the attention towards products that are lower in nicotine and which minimise or eliminate the omission of the noxious fumes that are associated with cigarette smoking.
Many years of armed conflict and a lack of government spending have left Iraq with some of the poorest infrastructure in the Middle East. This means that the transportation and distribution of tobacco products throughout the country can be very challenging.
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Tobacco
Passport Tobacco covers the seven major tobacco categories: Cigarettes, Cigars & Cigarillos, Smoking tobacco (made up of Pipe tobacco and RYO tobacco), Smokeless Tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco), E-Vapour Products (closed and open); Heated Tobacco; and Tobacco Free Oral Nicotine. Smoking paraphernalia such as pipes, rolling papers, lighters or matches, etc., are not included, nor are nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products, which are part of Euromonitor's Passport Consumer Healthcare database.
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Tobacco research and analysis database.
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