Urgent call for a temporary halt on flavored cigarette ban

The newspaper vendors urged a temporary halt to the ban on flavored cigarettes amid “cheap whites” producers actively hiring part-time workers to expand their illicit market. 

Hong Kong Newspaper Hawker Association chairman Lam Cheung-fu said at a media luncheon Thursday that the government’s significant tobacco tax increases over the past two years have sharply raised cigarette prices and boosted the illicit market for “cheap whites,” which are taking business from law-abiding retailers.

“Cheap whites” are illicit cigarettes packaged in the same way as duty-paid cigarettes. 

Lam noted that Customs data shows that seized illicit cigarette cases rose from nearly 12,000 in 2023 to over 21,000 in 2024, an 80 percent increase.

“If the government bans flavored cigarettes, smokers won’t find them legally, while ‘cheap whites’ producers will continue to supply them, effectively monopolizing the market,” he warned. 

“The ban on flavored cigarettes could inadvertently create a lucrative business for the illicit cigarette trade, making it even harder to eradicate,” Lam said.

(Cheng Wong)