In Italy the market for contraband cigarettes absorbs 3,4% of national consumption: less than half the European average, which stands at 7,8%. The data, referring to 2020 and contained in a report by Kpmg, emerged in Rome during a conference on the fight against crime in the tobacco sector.
However, our country's success in the fight against smuggling should not lead us to think that the phenomenon is not widespread: every year, the counterfeit cigarette market steals more than 400 million euros from the state, money used by criminal organizations to finance this and other activities illegal. At the same time, however, Italian smokers who consume contraband cigarettes are less than half of those in England and France. The conclusion is simple: an important part of the counterfeit cigarettes that pass through our country is destined for the foreign market.
After all, "Italy is the first European producer of tobacco, with over a quarter of the total production, developed on 16 thousand hectares – he explains Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti – Smuggling results in economic damage for the community, but the effects on health are also worrying due to the lack of quality controls and the use of prohibited chemical substances”.
During the conference – organized by the Agromafie Observatory Foundation with the collaboration of Philip Morris Italia – it was presented the Maciste project (acronym for agromafia monitoring, illicit fight against the e-cig tobacco sector), which aims to permanently control the phenomenon. From these checks a report will be born every year, created with the contribution of the various protagonists of the sector: law enforcement agencies, the Customs and Monopolies Agency, the Investigative Directorate and the District Anti-Mafia Directorate, up to the Scientific Committee of the Agromafie Observatory Foundation.
“This week the Council of Ministers will definitively approve the text transposing the European directive on unfair commercial practices - announces Stefano Patuanelli, Minister of Agriculture – All activities aimed at combating the offense will always see the ministry in the front row, in particular as regards tobacco, which in recent years has suffered a decline in its production capacity, but which sees in the collaboration between producers and processors a guarantee of a certain outlet on the market”.
Marco Hannappel, president and CEO of Philip Morris Italia, points out that "product innovation, such as heated tobacco technology, makes it possible to hinder counterfeiting, but smuggling will evolve in the future and the project we are presenting today will also help us keep this phenomenon under control. Within Philip Morris we have a structure dedicated to working with law enforcement agencies to help them fight the illicit trade. It is also thanks to public-private partnerships that, in recent years, Italy has made more progress than other European countries in the fight against tobacco counterfeiting”.
