Tobacco Trade

Brazil is the largest exporter if the tobacco leaf, and the Russian Federation and USA are the largest importers. The value of US tobacco leaf exports are about double that of the same quantity of imports because the tobacco is so popular globally. China is emerging as a significant cigarette exporter, worth in US dollar $320 million.They predict China’s export trade in cigarettes to soon be US$600 million.

Source: http://www.who.int/tobacco/statistics/tobacco_atlas/en/

Smuggling Cigarettes

A 1995 study showed that between 300 to 400 billion cigarettes were smuggled into the U.S. that year, which is equivalent to one third of the legally imported cigarettes sold. Cigarettes are the worlds largest legal product that's smuggled across every national border. Smuggling causes international brands to become affordable to low income consumers. While tobacco companies are making large amounts of profit off illegal distribution, the government is losing tax revenue.

The Chinese government
loses $1.8 billion in revenue
each year from cigarette
smuggling




Source: "Tobacco and Medical Care." Smoking Effects. Web. 16 May 2011.

Advertisement

In the USA alone more than $10 billion is spent on cigarette advertisment yearly. That is a lot of money spent considering the restrictions of advertising tobacco products. Cigarette advertising is prohibited on television and radio shows, and very limited to outdoor advertising. Tobacco companies make $200 per smoker every year just for advertising costs.

Marlboro Man was the top ad icon of the 20th century

Source: "Cigarette Advertising." Web. 18 May 2011. <http://healthliteracy.worlded.org/tobacco/1cigarett_adv.html>.

Leading Tobacco Companies

Philip Morris is the largest leading tobacco company, whose Marlboro brand is the top selling brand of cigarettes. In 1999 the company had over $47 billion in sales. If the U.S. is excluded, British American Tobacco (BAT) sells the most cigarettes worldwide and has the largest network in the most countries. Since the early 1990s, cigarette companies have increased in developing countries and eastern Europe.

TOP TOBACCO COMPANIES:

1)Philip Morris $47.1 billion

2) British American Tobacco $31.1 billion

3)Japan Tobacco International: $21.6 billion

4) Reemtsma $6.1 billion

Source:  "About Philip Morris USA - Philip Morris USA." Home - Philip Morris USA. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.philipmorrisusa.com/en/cms/Company/Corporate_Structure/default.aspx>.

 

Costs to the Smoker

Money spent on buying tobacco could easily be going to towards food, clothing, shelter, or your family. Regularly smoking can deprive a worker from years of income, and also cost them money when dealing with health related issues. In China, on average one tends to spend 60% of their personal income on cigarettes. Major companies are making it more difficult to quit by raising the amount of nicotine put into each cigarette. Between 1997 and 2005 Camel, Newport, and Doral brands raised their nicotine content by 11 percent.

A pack of Marlboro or equivalent international brand will buy….

A  dozen eggs in Panama

A dozen coconuts in Papua New Guinea

One kilogram of fish in France

Six kilograms of rice in Bangladesh



Source: "Smoking and How  Much It Costs Your Health." 19 May 2011. <http://www.notosmoke.com/smoking-articles/smoking-health-costs.htm>.

Health Impact

Tobacco contains over 4,000 chemicals, 60 of which are known carcinogens. Smoking-related medical costs totaled more than $75 billion in 1998 and accounted for 8% of personal health care medical expenditures. Death-related productivity losses due to smoking among workers cost the US more than $92 billion yearly (average for 1997-2001). For each pack of cigarettes sold in 1999, $3.45 was spent on medical care due to smoking, plus $3.73 in lost productivity.







Source: "CDC Smoking & Tobacco Use." 19 May 2011.http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/datastatistics/effects_cig_smoking.

Costs to the Economy

Tobacco costs the U.S. welfare and healthcare spending, loss of foreign exchange in importing cigarettes, loss of land that could grow food, environmental costs ranging from deforistation to smoker's liter, fire damage caused by careless smoking, and higher numbers of accidents which means higher insurance premiums. 20% of the trash collected in the USA are cigarette butts found on the ground.  10% of death by fire are caused from smoking, which means every year 300,000 people die from fires caused by cigarettes. This costs our government around $27 billion. In 1999, smoking accounted for 6% of USA's total health care expenses.

Quotation at bottom reads:
"I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It costs a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar, it's addictive. And there's fantastic brand loyalty."










Source:

"Tobacco Control -- Supplements." Web. 19 May 2011. <http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/supplemental>.