Abstract: In order to avoid the cigarette deformation and jam during cigarette moving in the hopper of a cigarette packer, the discrete element simulation software EDEM was used to establish the simulation processing flow of cigarette movement pattern and analyze the distribution of force acting on the cigarettes in the hopper at different packing speeds. The validation was carried out on a ZB28 (X6S) high-speed cigarette packer, and the results showed that at the running speed of 260 packets per min, the simulation results of cigarette distribution in the hopper, in the discharge channels, under the fixed deflectors and in the dead corner of the arc plate all well agreed with the actual states during machine running; which indicated that the EDEM simulation software was suitable for studying the movement pattern of cigarettes in the hopper. This method provides a support for optimizing the hopper design and operating parameters.