NZ: New Data Reveals Sharper Decline In Cigarette Sales In The Past Two Years

Source from:  VapingPost 10/22/2019

The Health Promotion Agency gathered data from supermarkets, service stations and liquor store sales. The compiled stats indicated that the number of cigarettes sold during the 2018 peak period, just before a price increase, had decreased by 10.6%, year-on-year. This equates to 7.7 million fewer cigarettes sold during the peak period, or 385,000 packets of 20.

The drop in sales between the previous peaks in 2017, 2016 and 2015 had been of 1.4%, 1% and 3.5%, respectively. Additionally, overall annual cigarette sales dropped by 6.9% in 2018, while the sales’ drops in 2017, 2016, and 2015 were of 5%, 1.5% and nil, respectively.

Vaping products not acknowledged for their contribution.

Meanwhile, while a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health praised the ministry for the implementation of several measures that could have led to this drop, there was no mention of vaping products as a possible contributer. “New Zealand has developed a broad tobacco control programme over several decades that includes prohibitions on sales to under-18s, advertising and display of products, smoke-free areas, tobacco taxation, social marketing and stop-smoking services.”

The spokesperson did however mention the products as possible smoking cessation tools. “Vaping is a way to quit cigarettes by getting nicotine with fewer of the toxins that come from burning tobacco. Although vaping’s much less harmful than smoking, it’s not harmless – so people should plan to eventually quit vaping too, but only when they’re sure they won’t go back to smoking.”  Enditem