Cigarette manufacturers in Indonesia began printing graphic health warnings on packets Tuesday to discourage the habit of smoking, but they have yet to hit the market and appear in shops, Reuters reported. Tobacco companies, however, said they are not too concerned about the graphic change affecting their cigarette sales.
As one of the world's biggest tobacco markets and home to the pungent "kretek" clove and tobacco cigarette, Indonesia will be joining the ranks of countries across the world enforcing stricter anti-tobacco laws to deter smoking
But tobacco companies claim to be undeterred by the potential impact on sales in Southeast Asia's largest economy, where one in every five people smokes. "It seems like the health warning does not have a significant impact on sales in the countries that have implemented this. We shall see if it will have any impact on our sales," said Surjanto Yasaputera, corporate secretary of PT Wismilak Inti Makmur, a small cigarette manufacturer. "Our target is to increase that by 20 percent to 25 percent this year. For now we still maintain this target."
Australia introduced strict packaging rules by portraying a combination of graphic photos of smoker ailments overlaid on plain brown packs with no branding or logos in 2012, but to no avail. Last year, deliveries of tobacco retailers in Australia ended up rising slightly for the first time in at least five years.
Australia is being closely watched for signs of success as similar measures are explored by other nations including Ireland, New Zealand and Britain.
With tobacco being responsible for six million deaths a year, the World Health Organization estimates that number to rise beyond eight million by 2030, Reuters reported. Apart from causing cancer and other chronic respiratory conditions, smoking is also a major contributor to cardiovascular diseases, the world's No. 1 killer.
