Industry News
Federal Data: Pipe Tobacco Shipments Fell 8.5% in First Half of 2026
The bags of OHM, Kentucky Select, Golden Harvest, and 4 Aces that fill the pipe tobacco aisle are part of a shrinking market, and the latest federal numbers put a figure on it.
Manufacturers and importers shipped 8.54 million pounds of pipe tobacco into the taxed U.S. market from January through June 2026, down 8.5 percent from 9.33 million pounds in the same period of 2025, according to monthly statistics published by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). The agency last refreshed the dataset on August 31, 2026, and it now runs through June. The first-half decline follows a full-year 2025 drop of 11.5 percent, the steepest in the recent record.
The Numbers: A Multi-Year Decline
TTB tracks "taxable removals," the volume manufacturers and importers report when product leaves bond and federal excise tax comes due. It is the closest thing to a national shipment figure for the category.
- Pipe tobacco: 8.54 million lb (First half 2026) vs 9.33 million lb (First half 2025) — -8.5%
- Roll-your-own tobacco: 355,000 lb (First half 2026) vs 393,000 lb (First half 2025) — -9.7%
Full-year pipe tobacco removals were 23.65 million pounds in 2022, 22.14 million in 2023, 21.11 million in 2024 and 18.69 million in 2025, a decline every year in that span. Domestic manufacturing followed the same path, falling to 16.32 million pounds in 2025 from 18.83 million in 2024, and it was down about 21 percent in the first half of 2026 versus a year earlier.
One bright spot sits inside the six-month total. June 2026 removals came in at 1.63 million pounds, the strongest month of the year so far and above June 2025's 1.49 million. Whether that is a rebound or a one-month blip will be clearer when TTB posts July data, expected in the fall.
Why Pipe Tobacco is Under Pressure
Two forces are at work. The first is the same long-term decline in smoking that is pulling cigarette volumes down double digits. The second is specific to pipe tobacco: the federal tax gap that made the category boom after 2009 is under renewed scrutiny.
Federal excise tax on pipe tobacco is $2.8311 per pound, while roll-your-own tobacco is taxed at $24.78 per pound, TTB's rate schedule shows. That difference is why so much of what sells as "pipe tobacco" today is actually used in roll-your-own machines.
In an August 2025 report, the Government Accountability Office estimated the Treasury could collect at least $1.5 billion more over five years if the two products were taxed at the same rate. Legislation to close the gap has been introduced in the current Congress but has not advanced. Meanwhile, several states have raised their own other-tobacco-products taxes, and the 2025 closure of blender Sutliff Tobacco thinned out the traditional pipe side of the category.
What it Means for Pipe Tobacco Shoppers
- Fewer pounds does not mean empty shelves: An 8.5 percent decline is a market that is contracting gradually, not collapsing. The big value brands are all still in production.
- Expect brand consolidation over time: When category volume falls for four straight years, smaller labels and slow-moving blends are the first to disappear.
- Watch prices and pack sizes: Manufacturers facing lower volume and higher state taxes tend to adjust pricing in steps. Federal tax parity would be a far bigger change, but it remains a proposal, not law.
- Traditional pipe smokers are a separate story: Tinned aromatics like Borkum Riff and Half & Half are a small share of these totals. Their fate depends more on the individual companies behind them than on the roll-your-own tax debate.
The Bottom Line
The federal ledger says pipe tobacco shipments fell 8.5 percent in the first half of 2026 after an 11.5 percent drop in 2025. The category is still large, the major brands are still shipping, and June was the best month of the year. But the trend line points down, and a Washington fix to the pipe-versus-RYO tax gap is the one development that could change the aisle overnight.
A2Z Tobacco stocks the full range, from one-pound and five-pound bags of OHM, Kentucky Select, Golden Harvest, 4 Aces, Cherokee and Criss-Cross to canned and pouched Borkum Riff and Half & Half.