OUR COMMITMENT TO FIGHTING ILLEGAL TOBACCO TRAFFICKING

OUR COMMITMENT TO FIGHTING ILLEGAL TOBACCO TRAFFICKING

A new regulation for the traceability of tobacco products

European Directive 40 of 2014, referred to as TPD, sets out in Articles 15 and 16 that European Authorities may have access to all the information concerning the supply chain of any tobacco produced, distributed and sold within the EU. 

The implementation of a track and trace system in our sector places us before a challenge that Mac Baren Tobacco Company has efficiently tackled, immediately taking steps to comply with the new regulation by 20th May 2019, after which date un-”traceable” products without an identification code will no longer be allowed to be distributed.

 

A challenge that drives us to innovate

Track and Trace represents a huge challenge, because it affects everything we do. Everything we do will have a new layer of extra procedures to go through” 

Jeppe Isaksen

Track and Trace Project Manager at Mac Baren Tobacco Company 

From May 2019 all the companies in the tobacco industry will have to provide the European Union with information about the movements of their products, even if these are within the company premises themselves – for instance, when a product is moved from the production line to the warehouse. 

To make this possible, our company has implemented more than ten new IT systems that manage the information concerning products in every phase of production, storage and shipping, as well as all the related accounting.  

This massive job required the intervention of multiple experts in the field but, above all, it tested our ability to innovate the activities and processes we are accustomed to performing every day. 

The process for compliance with the European regulation also affects all the economic players involved in the sale of our products, including suppliers and distributors. 

It is therefore vital for synergy to be established between us and our partners so we can work together to avoid all sorts of complications when the law comes into force. 

We are happy to invest for the good of our industry

The investment we made in order to perform the above activities was considerable to say the least, but at the same time we are well aware of the benefits which the new regulation will immediately provide for companies such as ours. 

Illegal tobacco trafficking is a plague which has afflicted this industry for decades. Every year, fake tobacco products are distributed and sold all over the world, and this could seriously jeopardise the reputation of a brand, but above all these may not meet the quality and control standards demanded of the manufacturers. 

Mac Baren Tobacco Company can only be in favour of a law that protects the originality of products, making it harder for traffickers to continue. 

The fact that an unequivocal identification code is affixed to every product in fact makes counterfeiting them extremely complex, or at least it allows the authorities to check the authenticity and origin immediately, simply by scanning the code.