Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı made a written statement regarding the important changes made to the ‘Regulation on the Procedures and Principles Regarding the Production Method, Labeling and Inspection of Tobacco Products’. Minister Yumaklı stated that these regulation changes were made in order to eliminate the problems encountered in practice and to add the necessary elements. He emphasized that these regulations include provisions for an effective fight against unregistered tobacco product trade and to prevent the encouragement of tobacco product use.
Minister Yumaklı stated the following on the issue: “Following the previous amendments made to the Turkish Standards, which are among the mandatory technical regulations to be followed in the issue of market conformity certificates by our Ministry, it became necessary to make amendments in order to harmonize the regulations in the (TS) 13444 Cigar and Cigarillo Standard with the relevant provisions of the regulation. In this context, with the amendment to the regulation published in the Official Gazette, we are implementing certain regulations in the production method and market supply of tobacco products. “mechanism to prevent informality in tobacco product trade and eliminating certain incentive elements.”
According to the statement made by the Ministry, after the regulation change, it will be mandatory to indicate the tobacco content in hookah tobacco product packages. Necessary infrastructure preparations are ongoing to monitor this situation. In addition, the production date and coding information will need to be written on the inner packaging of hookah tobacco products. The fact that hookah tobacco product packages are not cylindrical is also part of the new regulation. The coding information content on cigarette packages will be expanded in order to ensure tracking and monitoring.
- Information such as production line/machine number and shift number on cigarette packages
- Minimum day-month-year coding
- Minimum day-month-year coding requirement for other tobacco products
In addition, it will be mandatory for the production date information on tobacco product packages to be at least day-month-year.
Transition Process and New Regulations
On the other hand, in order to prevent the encouragement and promotion of tobacco product use, the use of colorants in the production of hookah tobacco products has been banned; it has been stipulated that cigarette filters cannot be in any shape other than cylindrical. Companies operating in the sector are required to make their products compliant with the regulations introduced with the regulation amendment. A transition period has been granted until 31 March 2025.After December 31, 2025, it will not be possible to find products on the market that do not comply with the changes introduced by the regulation.
