Monthly Archives: March 2011

From CRE Brazil

From: China Tobacco/Shandong Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Bureau

Editor’s Note: Translation courtesy of the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness

Although China’s is working to crack down on counterfeit cigarettes, the manufacturing and sale of fake smokes is a covert activity that changes location, has the strong ability to regenerate. Counterfeit cigarette cases are increasingly complex. The counterfeit cigarette trade is conducted by large organizations and results in the loss of State revenue. The high level of chemicals in counterfeit cigarettes will affect the health of people to a certain extent. If the problem of counterfeit cigarettes is not solved as soon as possible, is bound to affect the healthy and orderly development of China’s tobacco market as a whole. So, what are the harms from making and selling fake cigarettes? 

Editor’s Note: Translation courtesy of the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness

Tianjin Hong, March 24 (reporters Wang Jiajun, Ding Xiaobing, Shi Jiao).

Recently, the Tianjin police cracked the case of large groups trafficking in counterfeit cigarettes with a value of over one million yuan. Police indicated that in recent years, the groups have been taking orders for manufacturing and selling counterfeit cigarettes. So where are counterfeit cigarettes sold and where does the demand come from?

Tianjin police deployed more than 150 elite police in the Beichen District village where an underground counterfeit cigarette factory was confiscated.

Editor’s Note: Translation courtesy of the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness

Source: http://www.cnnb.com.cn/, Ningbo, China Network　　 March 22, 2011

Zhenhai News Network (correspondent Chen Feng-shan) reported today that nearly 3,000 counterfeit cigarettes and 2.5 tonnes of low-quality silk were destroyed. The value of the counterfeit cigarettes was 736,000 yuan and involved nearly 20 brands.

“Most of the consignment was seized in transport or shops.” District Tobacco Monopoly Bureau staff said. There were dozens of ways to tell the cigarettes seized were counterfeit, mostly counterfeit famous brands, which show some authenticity but are also full of flaws. “At a glance it could be determined the cigarettes were produced in an underground factory. For instance, some of the brands have never produced hard pack cigarette boxes that in the market were actually for sale.”

A BBC investigative reporter went undercover to learn about the counterfeit cigarette trade in the UK and found that counterfeit cigarettes contain 30 times as much lead as legal products.

Watch the BBC video.

From: ShanghaiDaily.com

In the file photograph taken on February 25, a police officer shows cigarettes discovered in an illegal factory hidden 6 meters underground in Fujian Province.

A FACTORY making counterfeit cigarettes, hidden deep underground in southeast China’s Fujian Province, was raided by the authorities, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

The factory was more than 6 meters beneath the ground in Yunxiao County. It had a storehouse of 20 square meters and a complete production line covering the whole cigarette manufacturing process.

COUNTERFEIT CIGARETTES

Brazil is flooded with counterfeit cigarettes. Tobacco companies lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually to smuggled or fake cigarettes.

These illegal cigarettes now represent 34 percent of the volume of cigarettes sold per year, jumping from 5 percent of the market in 1991 and 20 percent in 1995.

Approximately 51 billion cigarettes are sold illegally every year in the Brazilian market out of a total of 150 billion cigarettes sold per year, mainly originating in Paraguay.

Economic Impact