Hong Kong’s burgeoning e-cigarette industry on the precipice as city mulls total ban
- Business is brisk for wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers of vaping products, but it could all come crashing down as officials signal e-cigarettes may be outlawed
In just over two years Thomas McRae watched his business expand from an online shop to three stores in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island.
He sells e-cigarettes, which have taken off in a big way in the city and worldwide in recent years.
The Hong Kong Vape Association, founded in 2015, now has about 100 members, covering around 50 shops, 20 wholesalers and 30 manufacturers of e-cigarette products.
The retail turnover is estimated at between HK$20 million (US$2.55 million) and HK$30 million a year. Hong Kong also re-exports e-cigarettes made in mainland China and this is said to be worth about US$10 million a month.
Business has been brisk and lucrative, but it may all fall apart if Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor goes ahead with her proposal to ban the import, manufacture, sale, distribution and advertisement of e-cigarettes as well as other new smoking alternatives.
In her policy address in October, Lam said these products were promoted as being less harmful than cigarettes and targeted young people and non-smokers, when in fact they led users eventually to smoking cigarettes.