SEOUL, May 18 (Korea Bizwire) — According to a study, one in eight people buy cigarettes on impulse after viewing cigarette advertisements or cigarette packs on display at convenience stores. Moreover, the same study showed that 1.9 percent of non-smokers had purchased cigarettes on impulse. The study, carried out by Prof. Cho Seong-il and his [...]
SEOUL, May 16 (Korea Bizwire) — The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s recent decision to enlarge the size of graphic warnings on cigarette packs is facing strong opposition from the Korea Tobacco Retailer Association (KTRA). Along with South Korea, a number of countries oblige tobacco companies to cover more than 65 percent of cigarette packages [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — The World Health Organization (WTO) has recommended South Korea to adopt more stringent regulations to ban cigarette smoking in public places and restrict tobacco advertising and promotions. The WTO has been issuing the outcome of the MPOWER project assessing the implementation of monitoring, protecting, offering help, warning, enforcing bans [...]
SEOUL, May 18 (Korea Bizwire) – On Wednesday, Philip Morris announced that it would begin selling its new e-cigarette iQOS in June, which is allegedly relatively harmless compared to typical cigarettes because it “heats” the tobacco leaves inserted into the device instead of “burning” them. The announcement immediately posed a new concern for South Korea’s [...]
SEOUL, May 5 (Korea Bizwire) – Complimentary cover-up stickers that hide graphic warning labels on cigarette packets are being widely distributed in South Korean convenience stores in an effort to encourage tobacco sales. Known as “manner labels” in Korean, which roughly translates into English as modesty labels, the stickers, which are made by private companies [...]
SEOUL, South Korea, March 23 (Korea Bizwire) – Graphic warning labels printed on tobacco packages will now be seen on packages of cigarettes sold at duty free shops. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) announced Wednesday that cigarette products exported from foreign countries for sale at duty free stores will also be subject to the [...]
SEOUL, March 21 (Korea Bizwire) – The age at which South Korean women start smoking has been moving down as the negative perception of women’s smoking wanes amid tobacco makers’ active marketing targeting them, a report said Tuesday. The report, based on a survey of 35,996 female smokers aged 19 and older, showed they took [...]
SEOUL, March 14 (Korea Bizwire) – KT&G Corp., South Korea’s largest tobacco product manufacturer, said Tuesday it posted solid profitability last year due to growing demand abroad despite falling domestic consumption. The company said its sales rose to 2.96 trillion won (US$2.57 billion) in 2016, up from 2.82 trillion won in the previous year. The [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – It has been two years since the Korean government raised its tobacco tax by 80 percent. Whether it helped to promote public health and bring down the smoking rate is still open to debate, but it was undoubtedly a lucrative decision for both the government and cigarette companies, especially [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Korea Bizwire) – KT&G, the leading tobacco company in Korea, has just released a press release boasting of its 2016 overseas cigarette sales, quickly drawing criticism given the fact that a large portion of the earnings were from less developed countries. According to company data, KT&G saw overseas sales increase by 4.7 [...]