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** 15 November 2021
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** UK
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** Ethical concerns are dissuading investors in Big Tobacco, says billionaire investor (#1)
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** Comment: Sugar could become the next tobacco in the eyes of regulators (#2)
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** International
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** Australian governments urged to set date to ban cigarette retail sales (#3)
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** EU: Greece records second highest rate of daily cigarette smokers in EU (#4)
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** UK
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** A secretive Cayman Islands-based tycoon who has invested a combined £5bn in Imperial and British American Tobacco is thought to have said that the sector has been undervalued because investors are “spooked” by ethical concerns. Kenneth Dart, billionaire heir to an American foam cups fortune, has a 7% stake in BAT worth £4.5bn and 4.75% in Imperial worth £700 million.
Dart’s stakes have intrigued analysts as buyers for stocks in tobacco firms are dwindling in number, partly due to concerns with the ethics and future of the industry. Some institutional investment funds actively avoid tobacco. Dart, 66, has declined to comment on his investments, but sources say he is a “value investor” who does not believe the tobacco sector will “disappear tomorrow”.
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Source: The Times, 15 November 2021
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** Ignacio Vazquez, senior manager for healthy markets at responsible investment company ShareAction, argues that sugar industry regulation could soon mirror that of the tobacco sector.
Vazquez notes that this year’s Sugar Awareness Week, just finished, saw discussions between civil society, regulators, and industry on the urgent need to do far more to improve people’s diets. Conditions linked to excess weight alone make up 8% of all UK healthcare expenditure and cost the economy £74bn every year when combined with lost workforce productivity and reduced life expectancy. Globally, obesity is estimated to cost the world 2.8% of its GDP.
Vazquez notes that unhealthy foods are already regulated globally. Products high in sugar and calories are taxed in 50 jurisdictions. This month (November) Argentina became the latest Latin American country to follow Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay in adopting warning labels on products high in calories, saturated and trans-fats, sodium, and sugar. In the UK, advertising and marketing restrictions are being introduced on the least healthy food and drink products from Autumn 2022. Vazquez says that food firms are already facing more investor challenges over their unhealthy products, illustrated by a first-of-its-kind shareholder resolution filed at Tesco this year, and argues that manufacturers reliant on less healthy products could become ‘’stranded assets’’.
Despite this, Vazquez argues that food companies are not doing enough. In the UK, the latest report from the Access to Nutrition Initiative showed that only 29% of sales from the top 16 packaged food and drink manufacturers come from healthier products. Six manufacturers –Ferrero, Suntory, Mondelez, Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé – continue to make 80% or more of their UK sales from less healthy products. Vazquez argues that this lack of progress is worrying investors, with higher levels of regulation expected making unhealthy food and drink products ‘’a risk to investors’ portfolios’’. Vazquez concludes that food companies must adapt, creating new healthier products and shifting marketing and advertising efforts to these products.
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Source: The Grocer, 15 November 2021
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** International
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** Leading Australian public health researchers say that Australian governments must set a date for banning the sale of cigarettes through retailers including supermarkets and find new ways of boosting revenue without relying on tobacco excise taxes. Associate professor Coral Gartner, an international expert in tobacco control policy at the University of Queensland, and colleagues made the comments in a Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) piece published on Monday 15 November.
The comments accompanied research published in the same journal on Monday which found that 1,466 respondents (52.8%) to a Victorian Cancer Council survey agreed with phasing out the sale of cigarettes in retail outlets. “Sometimes the public is ahead of the policy,” said Gartner. In their article, Gartner and colleagues wrote that there is an urgent need for “ending the regulatory exceptionalism that has maintained the legal status of tobacco products as a consumer good. Cigarettes do not meet modern consumer product safety standards”.
Gartner, the director of the National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame, told Guardian Australia that other countries have gone further than Australia. The Netherlands has passed laws preventing supermarkets from selling cigarettes from 2024, New Zealand has proposed new measures that include significantly reducing the number of tobacco retail outlets and possibly removing nicotine from cigarettes, while California cities Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach ended tobacco sales on 1 January this year.
Noting New Zealand’s plans for an innovative new tobacco control plan, Gartner said: “We need to start having the same conversations in Australia now because there are details that need to be considered. We don’t want to criminalise people and are not talking about making tobacco an illicit product, and we don’t want people with addiction having difficulty quitting and finding an illicit supply. So, we need to start doing research now and consulting on acceptable alternative options.”
Source: Guardian, 14 November 2021
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** See also:
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** Medical Journal of Australia - It is time for governments to support retailers in the transition to a smoke‐free society ([link removed])
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** Medical Journal of Australia - Public support for phasing out the sale of cigarettes in Australia ([link removed])
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Read Article ([link removed])
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The latest Eurostat data shows that Greece has the second highest rate of daily cigarette smokers within the EU. The 2019 data found that 23.6% of Greeks smoke daily, second only to Bulgaria with 28.7%. Following Greece are Latvia (22.1%), Germany (21.9%), and Croatia (21.8%).
Countries with the lowest rate of daily smokers according to the data were Sweden (where 6.4% of the population smoke daily), Finland (9.9%), Luxembourg (10.5%), Portugal (11.5%), and Denmark (11.7%). The proportion of smokers who consumed 20 cigarettes or more per day ranged between 1% of the population in Sweden to 12.9% of the population in Bulgaria.
In all EU Member States, daily cigarette smoking was more common among men than women, apart from Sweden and Denmark. Overall, 18.4% of the EU population aged 15 years or over reported being daily cigarette smokers, with 5.9% consuming 20 or more cigarettes a day.
Source: Greek City Times, 15 November 2021
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