Support for local leaf

The Indonesian government is expected to require local tobacco manufacturers to buy domestic leaf tobacco as a prerequisite for importing tobacco, according to an Antara News Agency story.

The Trade Ministry’s Director General for International Trade Oke Nurwan said in Jakarta yesterday that the government was acting in the light of a decline in farmer selling prices on the domestic market.

“[Importers] must use domestic tobacco, Oke said. “If they fail to buy even a single leaf of tobacco, then they cannot import.”

The Antara story said the ministry had prepared a ministerial regulation as the legal basis for controlling the import of tobacco, and that the regulation was expected to be ‘completed’ this year.

“We already finished it, and we will discuss it with other stakeholders,” Oke was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Indonesian Tobacco Society Alliance Budidoyo told Antara that he welcomed the government’s plan to protect tobacco growers’ interests.

“It is the manufacturers who know the amount of raw materials they need; thus, local tobacco should be absorbed first before they import it to cover the shortage,” Budidoyo said.

He added that quality had become one reason for the low demand for local tobacco, but that this problem should be overcome through a ‘partnership’ between farmers and cigarette producers.