Looking to export markets

The Philippines’ leaf-tobacco industry, which has been in a slump due to higher tobacco-product excise taxes and stricter regulations on smoking, is targeting the export market, according to a GMA News story.
Data from the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture, has shown that tobacco production declined by 30 percent, from 68 million kg in 2013 to 48 million kg in 2017.
The New Excise Tax on Tobacco and Alcohol Products act, which was enacted in 2013, gradually increased the levies on cigarettes to P30 per pack in 2017.
The NTA has projected output down to 42 million kg this year, but it believes that exports will reverse the downtrend trend.
“I think this is the year that it will start to increase,” NTA Regulations Department officer-in-charge Rohbert Ambros told reporters on the side of a forum in Makati City on Friday.
“The particular Burley type planted in the Philippines is the best type in the world…,” he said.
“But since we are the only country left as possible sources of Burley type, our local producers will expand.”
However, domestic consumption will remain stagnant due to the higher excise taxes and a national smoking ban in public places.