France Imported 304M Euros of E-cig in 2022, Belgium as Second Largest Source Country

France imported €304 million worth of e-cigarettes in 2022, with the top three countries of origin being China (64.2%), Belgium (21.2%), and the Netherlands (5.9%), according to data released by the EU statistical office.

In contrast to neighbouring Germany, France plays a lesser role in the transit of e-cigarettes, with over 80% of the imported products being consumed domestically. On the other hand, nearly half of Germany’s e-cigarette imports serve as transit goods to other countries, coming mainly from China and Malaysia and primarily destined for Italy and several Eastern and Southeastern European countries such as Portugal and the Czech Republic.

Data revealed that France reported e-cigarette imports amounting to €304 million in 2022 with weights reaching 5,075.6 tons and an average unit price of €59.91 per kg. China was the biggest source country, followed by Belgium.

The flow of e-cigarettes between England and France is primarily through the Dover/Eurotunnel. France exported e-cigarettes worth €57.3 million with a weight of 1,718.6 tons and an average unit price of €33.34 per kg. Major destinations were Poland (23.4%), Spain (13.9%), and Switzerland (10.2%). France is the second-largest e-cigarette source for Spain, accounting for more than 14.6%, and the largest for Switzerland, with over 60% of all the latter’s e-cigarette imports from the EU.

China’s General Administration of Customs data shows that in 2022 the country exported e-cigarettes worth about $1.94 billion and 24.9k tons to the EU’s 27 member countries, of which about $188 million (2,718.5 tons) were exported to France. In contrast, EU statistical data disclose that France imported €195 million ($209 million), or 2,831.4 tons, of e-cigarettes directly from China.

All data is sourced from Eurostat, reporting by the 27 EU member states – Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. The exchange rate is based on the rate on December 30, 2022, where €1 equals $1.0702.