Cigar Consumption And Revenues In Europe
Cigar consumption in Europe (2011-2019)
Cigars and cigarillos are niche products within a much larger manufactured tobacco market and constitute enjoyment products, which contribute only marginally to smoking prevalence across the EU.
The market for cigars and cigarillos continues to decline across Europe (from 10.37 billion sticks in 2011 to 9.23 in 2019) with no signs that this trend will reverse anytime soon.
Estimated Market Shares of Tobacco Products in the European Union in 2019 ()
Number of pieces, billions | % of total market | |
Factory-made cigarettes | 458.4 | 82.9 |
Fine-cut tobacco | 79.25 | 14.3 |
Cigars and Cigarillos | 9.23 | 1.7 |
Other smoking tobacco | 3.86 | 0.7 |
Novel Tobacco products | 1.9 | 0.4 |
Total | 552.65 | 100.0 |
Sales developments of cigars in the EU Member States 2012-2019 (in millions of units)
Source: ECMA estimates based on market data.
Revenue from tobacco excise duty (in € millions)
DG TAXUD Excise Duty Tables (Tax receipts – Manufactured Tobacco), July 2019
2018 | Country | Cigarettes | Cigars and Cigarillos | Other Smoking Tobacco (including Fine Cut Tobacco) |
Belgium | 1774,91 | 11,95 | 577,8 | |
Bulgaria | 1254,61 | 1,4 | 40,7 | |
Czech Republic | 2193,47 | 6,39 | 83,89 | |
Denmark | 895,15 | 6,32 | 47,82 | |
Germany | 12294,47 | 93,16 | 1945,93 | |
Estonia | 191,26 | 1,88 | 6,77 | |
Greece | 2252,46 | NA | NA | |
Spain | 6214,09 | 103,27 | 595,33 | |
France | 10089,78 | 185,94 | 1674,15 | |
Croatia | 648,72 | NA | NA | |
Ireland | 739,97 | 5,55 | 3,23 | |
Italy | 9784,51 | 101,8 | 695,58 | |
Cyprus | 158,11 | 2,89 | 26,87 | |
Latvia | 205,85 | 2,66 | 4,42 | |
Lithuania | 283,11 | 3,06 | 5,93 | |
Luxembourg | 381,33 | 2,14 | 1,91 | |
Hungary | 804,81 | 8,46 | 270,69 | |
Malta | 90 | NA | 4 | |
Netherlands | 1948,16 | 8,72 | 672,9 | |
Austria | 1911,1 | NA | NA | |
Poland | 4611,54 | NA | NA | |
Portugal | 1263,28 | 26,59 | 69,61 | |
Romania | 2090,13 | 2,42 | 23,28 | |
Slovenia | 402,16 | 0,95 | 15,53 | |
Slovakia | 700 | 2,49 | 23 | |
Finland | 966,69 | 34,58 | 105,05 | |
Sweden | 844 | 5,68 | 17,03 | |
UK | 8139,52 | 82,07 | 1585,98 | |
Rounded Total | 73.100 | 700 | 8.500 |
[1] DG TAXUD, Releases for consumption of cigarettes and fine cut tobacco (2002-2019), ECMA figures for cigars and EA 2019 figures for ‘Other smoking tobacco’ and ‘Novel Tobacco products’. As per Commission SWD(2020) 33 final; the estimate of ‘pieces’ for the fine-cut and ‘other’ categories (pipe tobacco and similar) are based on a conversion of tonnage data at 1 gramme per piece.
* Included under “cigarettes’.