The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, Drum is the #2 selling brand of shag-tobacco, just below Van Nelle, which is also a brand of Imperial Tobacco. Smoking shag tobacco used to be more popular in The Netherlands than smoking ready-made cigarettes. In 1989, the 'market share' of shag-tobacco was 53%, but decreased to 42% in 2010.
The main reason for the popularity is the price. A typical cigarette contains less than 1 gram of tobacco. A pouch of 40-42.5 grams is about the same price as a box of 19-20 cigarettes, so the cost of a self-rolled cigarette is half the price of a ready-made cigarette. Many people also put much less tobacco in a self-rolled cigarette. The taxes on tobacco, however, are mainly based on the weight of tobacco, so the margins for the producer are lower on shag than on ready-made cigarettes.
Even in countries where the price of shag tobacco is much higher, people may smoke shag to save money by putting less tobacco in each cigarette. An example of this is Ireland where a 25 gram pouch shag has roughly the same price as a box of 20 cigarettes
Read more about this topic: Drum (tobacco)
Famous quotes containing the word netherlands:
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