Best-selling cigarette brand in Brazil comes from Paraguay

After becoming a global leader in the consumption of smuggled cigarettes, in terms of volume, Brazil must pass Malaysia into illegal tobacco market share, according to consultancy Oxford Economics. Last year, 57% of cigarettes smoked in the country entered illegally and it is estimated to reach 60% by the end of the year. With this scenario, the leader today is Paraguayan Eight, with 16% market share, according to Ibope Inteligência. She is closely followed, in third position, by Gift, which has 10% of the total and also smuggled. Added together, they represent more than a quarter of the market. In fact, in the ranking of the ten best-selling cigarette brands, four are from Paraguay – and the number of consumers loyal to these products have increased. Loyalty. Kantar's research made available to Oxford, which will be released today in Brasilia, showed that the number of consumers who declare themselves loyal to illegal brands has tripled in four years. The study found that the rate of smokers who declared themselves loyal to Gift increased from 2% in 2015 to 7.7% in 2019. Eight, also illegal, increased from 11.8% to 16.2% in the same period. Double impoverishment. Among the reasons is the impoverishment of the population with the economic crisis – especially classes C, D and E – and the high taxes. In Brazil, the taxation of cigarettes varies from 70% to 90%, depending on the State. In Paraguay, the product is taxed at 18%. With this, while the average price of cigarettes manufactured here is R$ 7.51, the illegal is sold for R$ 3.44, less than half of the legal product. Stab. According to economist Marcos Casarin, author of the Oxford Economics study, the tax curve came off the optimum point: the tax burden became so large that the state started to raise less, fewer jobs were created and organized crime was stimulated. On the other hand, consumption has not decreased, but has migrated to illegal trade.