Ivory Coast to be first African country to introduce plain packaging

January 31, 2022

Par: National Committee Against Smoking

Dernière mise à jour: January 31, 2022

Temps de lecture: 4 minutes

The Council of Ministers, which was held on January 26, adopted two decrees in favor of the fight against smoking in Côte d'Ivoire[1]The first concerns the methods of applying health warnings, packaging and labelling of tobacco products. The second concerns the establishment of a system for monitoring and tracing tobacco products.

Although Côte d'Ivoire has made progress in tobacco control in recent years, more than 9,000 of its residents die prematurely from diseases caused by tobacco use. prevalence rate in Ivory Coast is estimated at more than 14,130 of the total population, with a rising proportion among young people (19,130 of 13-15 year-olds are smokers according to the WHO).

Measures that should serve as models for other African countries

These decrees come into effect in application of the law n°2019-676 of 23 July 2019 on tobacco control and in accordance with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. These treaties recommend the establishment of comprehensive measures to reduce the consumption of all tobacco products in order to prevent the incidence of diseases and associated premature deaths. These new measures introduce plain packaging of tobacco products with health warnings covering almost all packages. Côte d'Ivoire will thus become the first country in Africa to require plain packaging for tobacco products. Plain packaging, accompanied by an arsenal of other measures (smoke-free areas, advertising bans, tax increases, bans on flavours, etc.) is a powerful public health tool[2].

Ivory Coast should be on the 20th^th country in the world to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products, the date of entry into force of the measure has not yet been set.

	INTRODUCTION
COUNTRY	At the manufacturing level	At the sales level
Australia	1^er October 2012	1^er December 2012
France	May 20, 2016	1^er January 2017
United Kingdom	May 20, 2016	May 20, 2017
New Zealand	March 14, 2018	June 6, 2018
Norway	1^er July 2017	1^er July 2018
Ireland	September 30, 2017	September 20, 2018
Thailand	September 10, 2019	December 8, 2019
Uruguay	December 21, 2019	December 21, 2019
Saudi Arabia	August 23, 2019	1^er January 2020
Slovenia	1^er January 2020	1^er January 2020
Türkiye	December 5, 2019	January 5, 2020
Israel	January 8, 2020	January 8, 2020
Canada	November 9, 2019	February 7, 2020
Singapore	1^er July 2020	1^er July 2020
Belgium	1^er July 2020	1^er January 2021
The Netherlands	1^er October 2020	1^er October 2021
Hungary	1^er January 2022	1^er January 2022
Denmark	1^er July 2021	1^er April 2022
Myanmar	April 12, 2022	July 12, 2022
Ivory Coast	?	?

The other decree concerns the establishment of a system for monitoring and tracing tobacco products. The purpose of such a system is to identify the various stakeholders in the production and supply chain of tobacco products manufactured or imported into Côte d'Ivoire in order to combat contraband markets. Through continuous tracing of the product and provided that the system is set up by third parties outside tobacco manufacturers, this system makes it possible to determine whether or not a seized product has left the legal network.

Keywords: Ivory Coast, plain packaging, CCLAT, fight against smoking, tracking and tracing system, Africa

[1] Press release, Ivory Coast: Council of Ministers of January 26, 2022, Ouestaf, January 27, 2022, accessed January 31, 2022

[2] Press release, Plain packaging in Côte d’Ivoire will save lives and set a bold precedent for Africa, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, January 28, 2022, accessed January 31, 2022

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