Can e-cigarettes without taste reduce the induction of minors?

The variety of novel tastes has always been an important means for e-cigarettes to attract consumers, but with the national order, the e-cigarette market has undergone new changes.
On March 11, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration promulgated the Administrative Measures for Electronic Cigarettes, which explicitly prohibits the sale of flavored electronic cigarettes other than tobacco flavors, which has been implemented since May 1. On April 8, the State Administration of Market Regulation issued the mandatory national standard GB 41700-2022 “E-cigarette”, which strictly restricted the taste of e-cigarettes and set a 5-month implementation transition period, which will be implemented from October 1.
China’s e-cigarettes are about to officially bid farewell to the era of seasoning, how will taste restrictions affect e-cigarette sales? Can “strong flavor supervision” effectively reduce the induction of electronic cigarettes to minors? After the transition period is over, where will flavored e-cigarettes go?

Inventories of fruity products decreased and prices rose
Flavored e-cigarettes continue to be sold, but the categories and quantities on the shelves are not as good as before.
“The guava flavor is gone, I have been ordering but I can’t order it, but watermelon, mung beans, pineapple, Tieguanyin, and some of them are priced at 99 yuan a box.” In an e-cigarette retail store in Chaoyang District, Beijing, a shopkeeper introduced it to reporters.
It is understood that the price of flavored e-cigarettes has risen briefly in March this year, and according to different tastes, the price increase ranges from 20 to 30 yuan, but now it has returned to the original price. The owner said that there are still more than 100 boxes of flavors in stock, and some only have a few boxes left, “At the end of July, some flavors may increase in price because of production stoppage.” ”
Previously, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration set up a transition period of “three no’s”: all kinds of investors are temporarily not allowed to invest in newly established e-cigarette production and operation enterprises; The main body of production and operation of existing e-cigarettes shall not build new or expand production capacity, and shall not set up new e-cigarette retail outlets for the time being. Restrictions on production enterprises, production capacity and retail outlets have reduced the stock of flavored e-cigarettes on the market, and many e-cigarette retailers said that it has become difficult to buy goods and prices have risen.
As a fan of flavored e-cigarettes, Chu Bowen began to contact e-cigarettes from college after 95, and is a large consumer of flavored cigarette bombs, and his expenditure on e-cigarettes has increased significantly recently. “I’ve been buying cigarette bombs from my friend, he’s a dealer, he used to buy several boxes at a discount, now no matter how much you buy, it’s 99 yuan a box.”

A consumer is picking out e-cigarettes. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Xu
Taste control dissuads some consumers
The taste has become less and the price has become higher, has the control of the taste of e-cigarettes dissuaded some consumers?
In terms of sales, tobacco flavor is not the most popular choice. “Tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes are 120 yuan a box, selling really not as good as fruit flavor, before maybe 80% or 90% of customers are for the fruity taste.” An e-cigarette online retailer said that many people who have not tried tobacco-flavored e-cigarettes are not used to smoking.
In addition, existing consumers are not completely buying it. “I’ve smoked smoky e-cigarettes before, and it’s closer to cookies than smoke, a little sweeter.” Chu Bowen said that there have always been tobacco-flavored e-cigarette products on the market, but the taste is not good, nor is it a pure tobacco taste, “The smoke taste is actually difficult to imitate, and friends around the smoke-flavored e-cigarette rarely buy.” ”
Li Enze, vice chairman of the Public Interest Law Professional Committee of the China Tobacco Control Association, believes that the higher price has a dissuading effect on some groups, such as teenagers; In addition, taste restriction can also reduce the induction of non-smoking groups.

However, he believes that for groups that have begun to smoke e-cigarettes, the effect of taste control may not be so good. On the one hand, many consumers have begun to hoard a large number of goods after the introduction of the policy, on the other hand, flavored e-cigarettes can still enter the market through other channels.
“Flavored e-cigarettes can no longer be sold in China, but they are not affected in some other countries and regions.” Consumers can still buy flavored e-cigarettes and bring them back to smoke themselves, not excluding that some people will play the edge ball through this channel and sell them privately. ”
From March to April this year, the national standards for the Management of Electronic Cigarettes and the National Standards for Electronic Cigarettes were released in turn. Subsequently, the “Detailed Rules for the Implementation of The Identification and Testing of Electronic Cigarette Products”, the “Provisions on the Identification of Electronic Cigarette Warnings”, the “Detailed Rules for the Administration of Electronic Cigarette Logistics”, and the “Detailed Rules for the Administration of Electronic Cigarette Transactions (Trial)” have been promulgated successively to further regulate the development of the e-cigarette industry.
However, whether the “tight hoop” can be worn steadily remains to be seen for a long time. Taking the current control of the taste of e-cigarettes as an example, the national standard for e-cigarettes continues the provisions of the second draft for comments, reducing the types of “additives allowed to be used in atomizations” from 122 to 101, reducing perfumes including plum extract, orange oil, sweet orange oil, lavender oil and so on.
“It’s good that the taste other than tobacco is not allowed to be sold, and the national standard does remove a lot of fruity spices, but now there is still some room for the preparation of e-cigarette flavors.” Wang Ke’an, a Tobacco Control Expert in China and former director of the Xintan Healthy Development Research Center, pointed out that there are still cool and sweeteners in the additives allowed to be used in the final version of the national standard.
But in any case, the industry has entered a new stage, just the restrictions on the taste of e-cigarettes will transform the production plans of large and small factories, the marketing strategies of large and small distributors, and at the same time change some of the living habits of consumers. What can be seen is that brands, retailers and buyers are all trying to access the new consumption scenarios brought about by the new national regulations.