The nicotine pouch market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – has been rapidly evolving in the past few years, with GCC countries either regulating the product under the tobacco regime or legalising it as a smoking cessation product. This is especially relevant considering the ban that GCC countries have imposed on oral tobacco-containing products, setting with that a distinction between oral tobacco as an alternative to traditional smoking, and nicotine pouches as a smoking cessation mechanism.
This report discusses the future of the market and regulation in the region.
