the tobacco market | France

1.1 Definition and scope of study

Located at the crossroads of public and private issues, the tobacco market is a very specific, highly regulated and monitored market, but which nevertheless affects all segments of the world and French population

The scope of this study will include the production, distribution and sale of tobacco and its by-products, such as cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, rolling tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff. It will also discuss new forms of consumption that have appeared on the market, such as the electronic cigarette.

While there were 16 million smokers in France, 70% of them after 2010, they are now only 13 million in 2018 . The government has also set a new target for reducing smoking in France: to reduce smokers aged 15 to 75 at the end of the Macron five-year period from 26.9% to less than 22%. The tobacco market is therefore in the decrease in France, first influenced by the increase in cigarette prices, which has led to a decline in cigarette sales over the past 20 years. The market is also in difficulty due to the growth in sales of medical patches and to electronic cigarettes .

The tobacco market is dominated by some leaders such as Philip Morris International (which owns the Malboro and Philip Morris brands), Seita (which owns Fortuna, Gauloises, Gitanes), Altadis Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International and British American Tobacco. There are also about forty tobacco distributors in France, the main one being Logista France. Finally, the retail sale of tobacco products is regulated by the Customs administration.