The selling of tobacco is a globalised operation resulting in a global health burden.1 This chapter first describes how the tobacco industry operates globally and within Australia, from how tobacco is grown and manufactured, the tobacco companies that operate in Australia, the Australian tobacco market, and retailing of tobacco within Australia.
Then, Sections 10.10 to 10.19 examine the way in which the tobacco industry operates in Australia and elsewhere, including its interaction with governments, non-government organisations, commercial enterprises, industry groups, the media and the public. InDepth Section 10A discusses the multitude of ways the tobacco industry defends its interests in Australia and other countries.
As described in Sections 10.2 and 10.3, tobacco is no longer grown or manufactured in Australia. Subsidiaries of major tobacco companies operate in the Australian market, but as they are not registered public companies within Australia they are not required to publicly lodge annual reports or financial statements specifying results from Australian operations. Data on sales volumes and market and brand share are extremely limited, usually only available to purchase through commercial sources. While we rapidly correct material when errors are discovered, it is difficult to confirm accuracy of information based on interviews with industry personnel and unpublished data. Readers are advised not to rely on this information for legal or investment purposes,.
10.0.1 Overview of the global tobacco industry
In only a few nations (e.g. China, the US, Japan and Egypt) is the tobacco market controlled by companies headquartered in that country.2 Tobacco companies may be either government operated or publicly traded companies—there are only a very small number of privately-owned tobacco companies.
The global tobacco industry is primarily concentrated in the hands of five tobacco companies that collectively control more than 80% of the world’s tobacco market. Four of these companies are publicly traded corporations (Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco Inc. and Imperial Tobacco), and the fifth, China National Tobacco Corporation, is government controlled.3 Market share concentration is increasing, with larger companies acquiring small operators.4 In 2001, these five companies accounted for about 43% of global market sales.3
In 2018, cigarettes accounted for 92% of the total tobacco market, with cigars, smokeless tobacco, and ‘other smoking products’ each accounting for 2-3% of the market.4 Tobacco companies have begun expanding their product ranges to include so-called reduced harm products such as heated tobacco products.5 The global tobacco industry was estimated to produce more than 5.2 trillion cigarettes in 2020 that were consumed by more than one billion smokers.3 While the total volume of cigarette sales has declined since approximately 2012, the value of the global tobacco market has increased.
The five largest cigarette markets in 2020 were China, Indonesia, the US, Russia and Turkey, accounting for 61.9% of the volume of all cigarettes sales. The biggest single consumer market is China, where the industry is state owned and the China National Tobacco Corporation controlled almost 99% of China’s cigarette market.3 As of 2014, 24 countries had tobacco monopolies or significant state ownership of tobacco companies, including Algeria, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Japan, and Thailand. These seven countries are among the 50 largest tobacco markets in the world. Most countries with significant state ownership or monopolies are located in the Eastern Mediterranean (including the Middle East) and Western Pacific regions (including Asian Pacific countries such as China and Japan). In 2011, state-owned tobacco markets accounted for approximately 40% of world cigarette consumption. (When excluding China this figure is only about 5%.).6
Government ownership alone is not always predictive of a lack of resolve to implement strong tobacco control measures. For example, the Tobacco Authority of Thailand (formerly the Thai Tobacco Monopoly) is government owned, yet Thailand is internationally recognised as having one of the world’s most advanced tobacco control programs.7,8 Privatisation of formerly state owned tobacco companies has been shown to lead to decreased cigarette taxes, overturned tobacco control legislation and increased tobacco consumption and prevalence.9,10
10.0.2 Obtaining data on the Australian tobacco industry
In December 2023, the Australian Parliament passed a bill, The Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Act, that requires tobacco manufactures and importers operating in Australia to report on an annual basis the volume and value of tobacco products imported, sold, or supplied in Australia.11 Once received and published these reports should fill vital gaps in data about the Australian tobacco market, evident in the outdated information currently presented in Sections 10.3 and 10.4.
While data on brand preferences among adults has been collected from surveys in Victoria and South Australia, neither the Australian Bureau of Statistics Health Survey or the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s National Drug Strategy Household Survey have asked about brand preferences, and so only limited data are available at the national level. The Australian arm of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) survey collects data on brands used, but the survey is too small to accurately estimate the prevalence of use of less frequently used brand variants, and data on product use are not routinely published and are only occasionally reported (e.g. Cho, Scollo et al., 2023).12
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References
1. Haustein K-O and Groneberg D. Society, politics and the tobacco industry, in Tobacco or Health? Physiological and Social Damages Caused by Tobacco Smoking. Haustein K-O and Groneberg D, Editors. Springer e-books; 2010. p 411–31 Available from: https://springerlink3.metapress.com/content/g8571304413tu081/resource-secured/?target=fulltext.html&sid=p5vwkv45auw2nlzc4dirmfbz&sh=www.springerlink.com.
2. Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. The global tobacco economy: A snapshot of economies of multinational tobacco companies and of international tobacco control efforts in 2008. Ottawa: Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, 2009. Available from: http://www.smoke-free.ca/pdf_1/GlobalTobaccoEconomy-2009.pdf.
3. Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. The global cigarette industry. 2021.
4. IBISWorld Pty Ltd. IBISWorld Industry Report C1131-GL: Global Cigarette & Tobacco Manufacturing. Melbourne: Australia: IBISWorld Pty Ltd, 2018.
5. World Health Organization. WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2023: protect people from tobacco smoke. Geneva, 2023. Available from: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240077164.
6. Euromonitor International. Meeting the new challenges – corporate strategy in tobacco. London: Euromonitor International, 2011. Last update: Viewed Available from: http://www.euromonitor.com/tobacco.
7. MacKenzie R, Ross H, and Lee K. 'Preparing ourselves to become an international organization': Thailand Tobacco Monopoly's regional and global strategies. Glob Public Health, 2017; 12(3):351–66. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28139965
8. World Health Organization. Tobacco industry interference with tobacco control. World Health Organization, Geneva: WHO, 2009. Available from: http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/70894.
9. Gilmore AB and McKee M. Exploring the impact of foreign direct investment on tobacco consumption in the former Soviet Union. Tobacco Control, 2005; 14(1):13–21. Available from: http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/14/1/13
10. Gilmore A, Fooks G, and McKee M. The International Monetary Fund and tobacco: a product like any other? International Journal of Health Services, 2009; 39(4):789–93. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19927416
11. Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) Bill 2023 [Provisions] and Public Health (Tobacco and Other Products) (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2023 [Provisions] [November 2023] (Cth). Available from: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Tabled_Documents/4236.
12. Cho A, Scollo M, Chan G, Driezen P, Hyland A, et al. Tobacco purchasing in Australia during regular tax increases: findings from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project. Tobacco Control, 2023:tc-2023-058130. Available from: https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/tobaccocontrol/early/2023/08/31/tc-2023-058130.full.pdf