Knowledge base · September 28, 2026 · Stefan Bensmo

From Ban to Registration: Argentina and South Africa Show the Next Wave of Nicotine Pouch Markets

While Europe fragments its rulebook, two other continents are opening at once, in completely different ways: Argentina, where nicotine pouches were sold before the country even had a law covering them, and South Africa, just chosen as the base for expansion across Sub-Saharan Africa by a brand we already recognize.

Argentina: a product category that became legal by never having been banned

Argentina banned the import and sale of e-cigarettes as far back as 2011, and added a ban on heated tobacco in 2023. Nicotine pouches were never specifically named in the legislation — and into that legal vacuum, BAT launched its VELO brand and Philip Morris International its ZYN in the country over the course of a few months, from November 2025 to January 2026, with no product-specific law regulating them.

On May 4, 2026, the government reversed course entirely: Resolution 549/2026 repealed both the 2011 and 2023 bans and replaced them with a system of registration, authorization, and control covering e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches together. Manufacturers must now register products, declare their contents, and include health warnings — and for nicotine pouches specifically, a flavor restriction limits them to tobacco and menthol only. The government justified the reversal by arguing the previous ban had failed: the products kept circulating anyway, with no health or tax controls, citing a survey showing 35.5% of high school students were already using them. Several medical organizations have called the decision a serious setback.

Our interpretation Argentina is, in practice, the same dynamic we described in the French tobacconists' continued marketing after the ban date — just with the opposite outcome. There, regulation moved from grey zone to ban. Here, it moved from ban to regulated market, and the companies already in place before the law caught up (BAT and PMI) now have an established distribution network that competitors must build from zero under the new, stricter regime. The payoff for acting early in a regulatory grey zone is real — but it comes at a price: the flavor restriction to tobacco and menthol forces already-established players to adapt their lineups to a rule they had no part in shaping.

South Africa: the continent's first real base

On August 4, 2026, Another Snus Factory (ASF) — the Swedish manufacturer jointly acquired by KT&G and Altria in late 2025 — launched its LOOP brand in Johannesburg and Cape Town, with three flavored variants to start. The company describes South Africa as Africa's largest nicotine pouch market already today, and, per the launch, intends it to serve as a strategic base for further expansion across Sub-Saharan Africa. Local distribution is handled by Venture South (Pty) Ltd.

The launch lands at a time when BAT, according to Reuters, reported 27.5% volume growth across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in the first half of 2026, to around 700 million pouches — still a fraction of the more than 3 billion pouches the company sold in the US and Europe over the same period, but a clear signal of where the next phase of growth is being sought. That South Africa specifically was chosen as the entry point, rather than a North or West African country, follows the same logic as contract manufacturers' choice of production sites: go where existing demand and infrastructure are already largest, and expand outward from there.

What it means for you

• A regulatory grey zone is a time-limited but real head start. Argentina shows that being in place before a law exists can let you build distribution that carries real weight once regulation does arrive — but be prepared to adapt your lineup to terms you had no say in negotiating.
• Track which country a company picks as its regional base, not just which countries it already sells in. South Africa's role for Sub-Saharan Africa is an early signal of where a whole region's demand is expected to grow next.
• Absolute volumes outside the US, Europe, and Scandinavia are still small. 700 million pouches sounds like a lot, but it's a fraction of established markets' volumes — meaning the real opportunity in these markets still lies ahead, not behind, and calls for a long view rather than a short-term one.

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