New tobacco floor prices

New minimum prices for flue-cured, Burley and native tobacco have been approved by the Philippines’ National Tobacco Administration (NTA) for the next two trading seasons, according to a story in The Manila Times.

In the case of flue-cured tobacco, which accounts for almost 60 percent of the country’s tobacco production area, floor or minimum per-kg prices will rise by 1.2 percent from P81 to P82 for Grade AA tobacco; by 2.5 percent from P79 to P81 for A grade; by 3.9 percent from P77 to P80 for B grade; by 4.0 percent from P75 to P78 for C grade; by 2.9 percent from P68 to P70 for D grade; by 3.0 percent from P67 to P69 for E grade; by 1.7 percent from P59 to P60 for F1 grade; and by 1.8 percent from P56 to P57 for F2 grade.

Floor prices for Burley have been ‘adjusted’ by P2 per kg so that per-kg prices for A-F grades respectively are now P70, P67, P58, P47, P46, and P38.

The new per-kg floor prices for native tobacco are P71 (up from P70) for high-grade; P60 (up from P58) for Medium 1; and P50 (up from P48) for Medium 2.

The per-kg prices for rejects were retained at P46 for flue-cured, P28 for Burley, and P40 (L-1) and P25 (L-2) for native types.

Farmers wanted prices to go up by as much P16.77 per kg given higher farm input costs, while buyers pushed for the status quo because of the impact of lower cigarette sales caused by increasing excise taxes and a nationwide ban on smoking in public places.

With prices for the next two years having been set, NTA Administrator Robert Seares said the agency would now focus on the reduction of production costs incurred by farmers.