Tobacco, Hannappel: ‘Our country is at the forefront for new generation products’

“Italy has launched the new generation products, in the field of heated tobacco before all the others, we are the most advanced in the world together with Japan, and today Italy has a regulatory and fiscal framework that has allowed since 2016 to have a revenue in our country that has always grown and an employment that has developed in a very strong and constant way in this sector “. This was stated by Marco Hannappel, president and CEO of Philip Morris Italia, speaking at the XIX Coldiretti Forum in Rome. This is “an epochal change carried out in a framework where the level of illicit in Italy is 3%, less than half of Europe with a downward trend. – explained Hannappel. – Italy can therefore be an example to others European countries on how traditional cigarettes can be replaced in the shortest possible time with new generation products and with an integrated tobacco supply chain like the one we have with Coldiretti “. During his speech, Hannappel recalled how Philip Morris decided in 2016 that he wanted to replace traditional products with new generation ones as soon as possible with an investment of 8 billion dollars in Research and Development. In 2016, Philip Morris’ largest plant in the world was built in Italy, in Crespellano in the province of Bologna with an investment of 1 billion and 100 million. The choice to have built this factory derives from two main reasons, explained Hannappel “the first is because in Italy there are excellences in the field of mechatronics and packaging, the second is for the very important multi-year vertical agreement with Coldiretti, which allowed to work not only on price but also on sustainability and the development of good agricultural practices in the first tobacco country in Europe “. The plan with Coldiretti provides for an investment of 100 million a year and a supply chain that employs over 30,000 people in Italy. “In the last year alone – added Hannappel – we opened a research and services center in Crespellano, with an investment of 600 million over three years, especially on machinery, an Industry 4.0 competence center that we will inaugurate at the beginning of next year. , a digital service center in Taranto that already employs 300 people today and an additional investment that I will announce on 6 December also in the South “concluded the CEO of Philip Morris Italia.