SALES of roll-your-own tobacco have rocketed so far this year, with an increase of around 60 per cent seen across Spain.

This is partly thought to be due to people’s perception that loose tobacco is less harmful than cigarettes, but mainly because it is cheaper.

Others say roll-your-own cigarettes are less habit-forming, since people are less likely to smoke them if they have to spend time making them up rather than simply reaching automatically for a cigarette from a packet.

Although a pouch of tobacco, together with the rolling papers and filters required, can cost 4.50 euros, it contains enough to make 60 cigarettes, compared to a packet of 20 ready-made cigarettes at an average of three euros.

A person who smokes a packet a day of cigarettes will be able to make a pouch of tobacco last up to four or five days, meaning that as the recession has hit smokers in their pockets, they are looking for ways of economising rather than giving up.

Some tobacconists say sales have gone up by 200 per cent in the last two years, and that they really began to note the rise in consumption in 2007.

Roll-your-own tobacco now represents 15 per cent of all sales, with the rest being cigarettes in packets.

This trend is more popular amongst the young, and mainly men, although a significant number of female smokers have now switched to tobacco and rolling papers.

“The recession is not going to ruin sales for us,” reveals one tobacconist in the Basque Country, “because if people smoke, they’re going to smoke, it’s that simple.”