PMI Pushes Smoke-Free Alternatives in Asia and Latin America at Tashkent and Buenos Aires Forums

Philip Morris International organized industry forums in Tashkent and Buenos Aires to advance what it calls smoke-free alternatives, positioning heated tobacco systems and nicotine pouches as the core of its product strategy in the regions.

At the events, PMI's speakers cited the two most frequently referenced mature markets as evidence that the shift is already visible. Japan and Sweden, where cigarette sales have fallen in tandem with heated-tobacco adoption, were held up as the model for what major markets can do once noncombustible products gain a foothold.

The Argentine forum carried a regulatory dimension. The company noted that Argentina recently lifted its ban on heated tobacco, a change it framed as opening the local market to the category. For PMI, the move reduces a legal obstacle in one of South America's larger economies.

The company also used the Buenos Aires sessions to flag a gap it says is limiting growth in the region. Consumer awareness of nicotine pouches, the pouch-based product PMI is now pushing alongside its heated devices, remains low across Latin America, and the forum was in part aimed at educating the trade and, through it, the consumer.

Read together, the two forums mark a coordinated push: use the falling-cigarette data from the North and Japan to argue the category is viable, point to Argentina's regulatory change as a green light, and work the awareness problem in the pouch category where the newer products have the most room to grow.