South Korea: Sales of Heated Products Likely to Edge Up

Sales of heated tobacco products in South Korea will likely edge up this year, even as the overall tobacco market is expected to decline, reports The Korea Herald, citing figures from Euromonitor International.

According to the market intelligence company, the Korean tobacco market reached KRW17.19 trillion ($16 billion) in 2019. Of that figure, KRW1.89 trillion was spent on heat-not-burn cigarettes, making South Korea the second-largest market for such products after Japan.

Euromonitor forecast Korea’s heating tobacco product market to reach KRW2 trillion in 2020.

Sales of e-cigarettes are expected to drop by 80 percent to KRW16.8 billion this year in the wake of new government restrictions on the category.

Flavored tobacco products, meanwhile, are gaining popularity in Korea. Last year, flavored products accounted for about 20 percent of South Korea’s conventional cigarette market, which is higher than in Japan (7 percent) and China (1.7 percent).