BERLIN, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- A total of 28.8 billion euros (34.7 billion U.S. dollars) worth of tobacco products were taxed last year in Germany, an increase of five percent year-on-year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Monday.
The quantity of fine-cut rolling tobacco taxed last year in the country even increased by 10.6 percent year-on-year, according to Destatis.
Measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, such as temporary border closures with neighboring countries, played a role in the significant growth of fine-cut cigarettes, Destatis noted. "In search of an alternative to the lower-priced cigarettes from abroad, consumers probably increasingly turned to fine-cut to roll their own cigarettes."
The trend towards pipe tobacco increased even more in 2020 than in the years before. According to Destatis, the quantity of pipe tobacco taxed increased by 44.3 percent year-on-year which mainly included tobaccos for water pipes and tobacco products for electric heaters.
By contrast, sales of cigarettes in Germany fell by 1.1 percent last year to 73.8 billion pieces, almost half the figure for 1991, according to Destatis. But taxed retail sales values for cigarettes went up by 43.5 percent to 22.8 billion euros over the same time.
Sales of all other tobacco products in Germany, on the other hand, rose sharply since 1991, with sales of pipe tobacco more than quadrupling, according to Destatis. (1 euro = 1.21 U.S. dollars) Enditem
