A RESEARCH conducted by researchers at the University of Cape Town (UCT), in the research unit of different products that generate profit in the country’s economy, has revealed that fake tobacco products take more than half of the market.
In this research published in the Tobacco Control document, it was warned that this problem could have a negative impact on health and the tax collected by the government in the country.
The researchers who were doing the research, also used some information from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey of 2021, where they found that it was estimated that 60% of the tobacco products sold at that time, since it was fake.
Those introductions clearly proved the boom in the counterfeit tobacco trade. It turns out that even before Covid-19, the fake tobacco product was already around 30% of the market as it has grown like this now.
One of the UCT researchers who was part of this study, Mr. Mxolisi Zondi, said that this study indicates that there is a big change in the tobacco trade.
He said that in the past, British American Tobacco (BAT), was the company that was self-sufficient in the tobacco market with 90% of the product, but it has changed a lot as in 2021 its product has decreased to 33%.
“Now it seems that Polaris Manufacturing, which was known as Gold Leaf Tobacco Corporation, is going on its own in the market as it appears that its product is leading the way BAT was in the past,” said Zondi.
Research has also revealed that many of these types of tobacco products, 80% of them are sold at prices that clearly indicate that no tax has been added to them, and that they are traded using spaza shops and people just sell them.
It has also been found that this product is mostly used by people with low income, illiterates and heavy smokers, which indicates that this product is mostly bought by needy people. Those from UCT have challenged the government to take steps to help control the way cigarettes are sold.