Beginning Aug. 14, 2023, tobacco products sold in Oman will be required to be sold in plain packaging. Following similar moves in Australia and Ireland, Oman’s Ministry of Health will require tobacco products to use packaging that has standardized colors and fonts, while 65 percent of the packaging will include a public health message.

For cigars, this means that visual identifiers that separate one cigar from another such as the designs on bands and boxes will be completely gone. Instead, every cigar will have the same simple band with text printed to identify which cigar it is.

Walid Saleh, ceo of Phoenicia T.A.A. Cyprus Ltd.—which distributes Cuban cigars in Oman—told halfwheel that plain packaging would be required for cigars beginning Aug. 14.

Brooks Whittington contributed to this story.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.