This photo provided by KT&G Corp. shows its flavored tobacco products.
SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Sales of flavored tobacco products that are made by adding flavorings to regular tobacco products to give them a sweet or cool taste are growing at a blistering pace in the domestic market.
According to the data that Rep. Choi Hye-young of the ruling Democratic Party received from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, domestic tobacco sales declined to 3.59 billion packs last year from 4.4 billion packs in 2011.
In contrast, sales of flavored tobacco products more than quintupled from 260 million packs to 1.38 billion packs during the same period.
Accordingly, the share of flavored tobacco products among overall tobacco sales has been on an upward trend, rising to 40.3 percent in June 2021 from 38.5 percent last year and 5.8 percent in 2011.
Among flavored tobacco products, sales of capsule-type cigarettes shot up to 1.09 billion packs last year, more than 15 times higher than the 70 million packs sold in 2011, with their share among overall tobacco sales rising to 32.4 percent in June 2021 from 1.7 percent in 2011.
Sales of e-cigarettes also jumped from 80 million packs in 2017 to 380 million packs last year, with sales of flavored e-cigarettes surging from 50 million packs to 310 million packs.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
