It Is Getting Harder to Buy Tobacco in the Countryside

The number of tobacco shops in Hungary has never been so low since the sector was restructured in 2013, Index reports. As a result, an increasing number of municipalities have no access to tobacco products – by the end of 2024, 675 municipalities have been without a tobacco shop.

The affected municipalities are such where both demographic and economic factors may play a role in the closure of shops.

In most cases, the declining population means that it is no longer worthwhile to operate tobacco shops, even if they were to operate in catering outlets, liquor stores or pubs, as was the practice in the past.

In addition to depopulation, the fact that in some places several shops were operating too close to each other, making them uneconomic to maintain, may be a factor. Furthermore, smoking cessation may also have an impact on the decline in demand, although the market for heated tobacco products continues to grow.

Fact

The restructuring of the tobacco retail sector started in 2013 and since then the number of tobacconists has not been as low as it is now. Before the restructuring, tobacco products were still available in many places such as liquor stores, pubs, grocery stores, but now they can only be sold with a concession or special designation. The concessionary entitlement was allocated in 2013, while the licenses of tobacconists operating under a designation can be withdrawn at any time without justification

According to statistics from the Regulatory Activities Surveillance Authority (SZTFH) as of 16 December, 5,051 tobacco shops in the country had a concessionary license, while a further 644 shops operated under a special designation. This represents a total of 5,695 tobacco shops, the lowest number since the restructuring of the sector in 2013.

However, as previously mentioned, the decrease in the number of tobacco shops does not necessarily mean a decline in smoking.

In recent years, Hungary has seen a significant shift in tobacco consumption trends, with heated tobacco products rapidly gaining popularity.

This trend is reshaping the tobacco market, as more consumers are switching to alternatives, driven by various factors. Looking at data from last year, in July and August 2024 alone, nearly 300 million heated tobacco units were sold—an unprecedented figure.

According to Eurostat data, 19.7 percent of the EU population smokes cigarettes every day.

In 2019, 5.9 percent smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day and 12.6 percent smoked less than 20 cigarettes a day. In the EU, most smokers are in Bulgaria, where 28.2 percent of the population smoke cigarettes daily, followed by Turkey (27.3 percent), Greece (27.2 percent), Hungary (25.8 percent) and Latvia (24.9 percent). In Hungary, 21.5 percent of men and 17.3 percent of women smoke, reported Euronews back in 2023.

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