Nicolas Bernard, 49, has worked at Macotab for 20 years.
Around him, machines shake the tobacco before slipping it into a cylindrical paper, adding a filter and then bringing the cigarettes together in batches of 20. They are then wrapped in aluminum foil to preserve the freshness of the tobacco. tobacco, then cardboard packaging and plastic film.
"
I arrived here by chance, via the interim
", says Nicolas Bernard.
This non-smoker and mountain sports enthusiast appreciates “
working with a natural product.
You have to deal with the quality of the tobacco, which can be changeable,
” he explains.
“
A bit like wine, there are blends of different varieties
,” adds site manager Thierry Jourdan, comparing the action of his worker “
to bottling
” in viticulture.
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The factory is therefore the last in France since the closure of that of Riom (center) in 2016 and produces cigarettes for Corsica and other regions of France.
Created in 1961, it belongs to the Seita group (Société d'exploitation Industrielle des Tabacs et des Correspondettes), a former French tobacco monopoly privatized in 1995, itself a subsidiary of the British giant Imperial Tobacco.
With around thirty employees compared to 143 at the beginning of the 1980s, the question arises of the future of this industry, “
rather in decline in Europe
”.
“
Which factory in France knows what it will be doing in three years?
asks Thierry Jourdan, also director of the Seita factory in Le Havre, which imports and processes tobacco.
“The parallel market is our first competitor”
"
Most of the manufacture of cigarettes in Europe today takes place in Germany and Poland
", with respectively 150 and 114 billion units produced per year, explains Basile Vezin, communications director of the Seita group.
France has banned tobacco advertising, and many factories have closed, turning into cultural places like in Marseille or a university in Lyon.
"
Today, the parallel market is our main competitor
", explains Basile Vezin, before recalling that in France, it represents 36% of cigarettes consumed, one in three packets, with "
50% counterfeits and 50% contraband and cross-border purchase
”.
Several clandestine factories were also dismantled in France in 2022 and in January in Rouen, in the northwest.
Last December, the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal unveiled a three-year plan to combat tobacco trafficking: according to customs statistics, from 284 tonnes in 2020, seizures of contraband tobacco stood at more than 600 tonnes (including two-thirds of cigarettes) over the first 10 months of 2022.
Thierry Jourdan deplores him “
the lack of tax harmonization between the different European countries
”: a package is worth around 5 euros in Spain or 6.50 euros in Sardinia against 8.50 euros in Corsica and 10.50 in France.
The price of a French package is divided between 84% tax, 10% for tobacconists and the rest for manufacturers and distributors.
In Corsica, an exceptional regime dating from a decree by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1811 made it possible to have prices 25% cheaper than those on the Continent, but the 2020 finance bill put an end to it.
Since 2022, the pack of cigarettes sold on the island must be worth at least 80% of that in France and the price must increase each year by 5% until reaching 95% in 2025.
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Tobacco "
is the leading cause of preventable death
" in France, according to Public Health France, which estimates the number of deaths at 75,000 per year and argues that "
one in two regular smokers dies from the consequences of their smoking
".
However, “
32% of 18-75 year olds said they smoked in 2021
”, according to Public Health France.
With nearly 22% of daily smokers, the French are among the 15 biggest smokers in Europe, just behind Poland, Slovakia and Spain.
