sharp increases expected on several packs of cigarettes in 2024

2023-12-13 18:04:15

Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP
7:04 p.m., December 13, 2023

Bad news for smokers. The price of a packet of cigarettes will experience a significant increase from January 1, 2024, as revealed by the newspaper The echoes this Tuesday. 50 cents, or even 1 euro more, can be expected on several packages. In detail, the price of Lucky Strike, Camel Filters, News Rouge or Winston Classic will increase from 11 to 11.50 euros, while the 12 euro mark will be reached for the package of Philip Morris Bleue, and even exceeded if acting Marlboro Red (12.50 euros).

Rolling tobacco and heating tobacco are not spared, far from it. They even appear at the top of the most spectacular increases with +1.20 euros for the 30 gram Fleur du Pays pouch and up to 1.50 euros for the Interval tobacco pouches (30g), which will now be displayed at 17.50 euros, compared to 16 so far.

The tobacconists are rebelling

A price increase that is not linked to the anti-smoking plan presented by the government at the end of November, which notably plans to increase the pack of cigarettes to 13 euros, gradually, by 2027. It actually results from the combination of two factors. It is first of all a direct consequence of inflation, responsible for an automatic increase in tobacco taxes, which represents 80% of the price of the pack. Added to this is the refusal of certain manufacturers to cut back on their margins, with the latter deciding to pass on the entire increase in taxes they experience. Enough to exceed the objective of the executive itself, which was counting on an increase to 12 euros of the package in… 2025.

A hard blow for smokers, but also for tobacconists who see it as a boon for illicit trade. “We knew that there would be a price increase, because a catch-up was planned for rolling tobacco and heating tobacco. But here, a step has been taken, we have reached worrying heights which will lead consumers to turn towards the parallel market”, regretted the Confederation of tobacconists, cited by AFP.

Will this increase have the merit of reducing the number of smokers in France? Without denying the “correlation” between increase in prices and drop in consumption, Frédéric Bizard, president of the Health Institute, still sees a limit. “In France, over the past five years, we have increased by around 37%, the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes has gone from 8 euros to 11 euros. We should have had a drop of 15%, we had a drop of 5%,” he said on Franceinfoalso believing that a rising tobacco price “is repressive on the poor”.

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