Author: Staff Writer

Tobacco growers inIndia, predominantly those from the main flue-cured production states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, are to intensify their protests against proposals to phase out tobacco growing, according to a story in the most recent issue of the BBM Bommidala Group Newsletter.

The growers are concerned that draft guidelines of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) threaten their livelihood andIndia’s exports.

The FCTC wants to phase out tobacco farming by forcing countries to decrease the area on which the crop is grown and dismantle trade bodies that promote tobacco, such as the Tobacco Board of India.

The growers are concerned by other proposals, too, including one that would ban most cigarette additives used by the tobacco industry.

“If these guidelines are adopted, these could render 30 per cent of our production unusable,” said Udayan Lall, the director of the Tobacco Institute of India.

“Not only will there be a sharp decline in prices, but even export earnings will be seriously impacted.”

The FCTC is due to meet inSeoulduring November.

The Korea Tobacco Growers Organization (KTGO), which represents about 5,000 farmers, has expressed its opposition to new proposals from the World Health Organization, according to a story in The Korea Times.

The Seoul-based organization says that the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will end up substantially cutting the income of Korean tobacco growers and threatening their livelihood.

The growers have issued their warning two months before representatives of more than 160 FCTC-member countries are due to meet in Seoul to discuss ways of regulating the tobacco industry and cigarette consumption.

“The current proposals go far beyond the FCTC’s original mandate,” said KTCO chairman, Lee Haw-kwon. “They are designed to force all governments to put the tobacco farming industry out of business without providing us with any economically viable alternative crop.

“If the unreasonable proposals pass during the FCTC’s upcoming fifth Conference of Parties, which takes place in Seoul in November, it will put more than 30 million farmers at risk, including Korean tobacco farmers who have been in the industry for more than 400 years.’’

Lee said that originally the FCTC had stated that governments should provide technical and financial assistance to aid the economic transition of tobacco growers and workers whose livelihoods were seriously affected as a consequence of tobacco control policies.

But the newly-suggested FCTC Articles 17 and 18 lacked any mention of helping farmers transfer to other crops.

Lee has asked the Seoul administration to oppose the new proposals in Article 17 and 18, which he said wrongly assumed that a reduction of tobacco farming households would automatically lead to a decrease in cigarette consumption.

The Prime Minister of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung, hopes to light up his country’s anti-smuggling budget with a scheme to re-export seized tobacco, according to a Vietnam News Agency story.

Under the PM approved Decision No. 1112, good quality tobacco seized from smugglers will be re-exported as part of an experiment running from now until the end of 2013.

Money earned from the pilot scheme will be used for future anti-smuggling activities.

According to the terms of the decision, the re-exports must not go to countries borderingViet   Nam.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade will be responsible for appointing suitable enterprises to perform the re-exports, as well as regulating them.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday urgedCambodiato increase taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products in order to raise state revenues and discourage smokers, according to a Xinhua Newswire story.

“Increasing tobacco tax will reduce consumption especially among the higher prevalence groups such as low-income and uneducated groups,” said Ayda A. Yurekli, co-ordinator for the WHO Tobacco Control Economics Unit, during a press briefing after a two-day, tobacco-taxation workshop in Phnom Penh.

She said that if the government increased tobacco tax by 10 per cent, smoking prevalence would fall by between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent.

Speaking at the workshop, Hang Chuon Naron, secretary of state at the Cambodian Finance Ministry, said the government was considering increasing tobacco tax.

He said thatCambodia, with a 10 per cent tax on tobacco, was the country with the lowest tobacco tax.

Officials from Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has said that it intends to have all substances found in the nation’s top-selling cigarette brands analyzed, according to a Daily Yomiuri story relayed by the TMA.

It intends also to form a panel of medical experts and consumers to debate the possible implementation of further regulations on cigarette manufacturers and stronger anti-smoking measures.

In the financial year 2000, the ministry analyzed about 30 pre-selected substances in cigarettes and their smoke that were seen as harmful.

For the new testing procedure, the ministry will choose the 10 most popular selling cigarette brands inJapanand use a third-party research company to perform tests on the cigarettes and their smoke.

The results of these tests are due to be discussed by the panel but officials have not said how this data will be presented to the general public.

South   Africais considering imposing plain packaging on tobacco products manufacturers, according to a Times Live story.

“We are keen to test this and if there is… support for it, we will go this route,” the health department’s director for health promotion, Vimla Moodley, was quoted as saying.

For the time being, the department is testing the use of graphic warnings on tobacco packs, which currently carry text messages, including, ‘tobacco is harmful to your health’.

The Imperial Tobacco Group said today that its overall financial position and operational performance for the financial year to September 30 was in line with the board’s expectations.

‘We are delivering strong gains from our key strategic brands and improving our revenue momentum through our focus on driving quality growth across our total tobacco portfolio,’ the company said in a note posted on its website.

‘Tobacco net revenues (at constant currency) are expected to be up by around four per cent with particularly good performances in ourEastern Europe, Africa & Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.

‘Stick equivalent volumes are expected to decline by up to three per cent (compared to re-stated 2011 volumes of 346 billion as disclosed in the group’s 2012 half year results), the majority of which is due to ongoing market weakness in Ukraine (cigarette) and Poland (fine cut tobacco), and compliance with international trade sanctions against Syria.

‘We are making excellent progress with our key strategic brands Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, West and JPS, and expect this to be reflected in further strong volume and revenue gains from these brands, which continue to represent an increasing proportion of our volumes.’

Imperial said it expected to release its results for the year ending September 30 on October 30.

A delegation fromChinais inRichmond,Virginia, on a fact-finding mission to lay the groundwork for future efforts against tobacco-products counterfeiting, according to localUSreports relayed by the TMA and Tobacco China Online.

The Chinese officials, including representatives of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, the Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration’s enforcement division and the General Administration of Customs, were due to meet with representatives of Philip Morris USA and the Altria Group, and local, state and federal law enforcement officials inNew York.

Michael Thorne-Begland, director of brand integrity for Altria, was quoted as saying that his company’s experience had been that most counterfeit Marlboros came fromChina.

Millions of packs of counterfeit cigarettes are illegally shipped into theUSevery year to be sold on the black market, primarily in urban areas with relatively high cigarette taxes, such asNew York   City.

Although counterfeit Marlboros made in Chinaare produced in what Thorne-Begland described as completely unregulated and unsanitary conditions, the counterfeiters have developed highly accurate reproductions of the brand’s packaging.

Thorne-Begland said that Altria had been working with Chinese officials for several years to tackle the problem, but that this was the first time a delegation had traveled from China to the US specifically to discuss cigarette counterfeiting.

“We think it shows their willingness to continue to work with US industry to fight counterfeit cigarette trafficking,” Thorne-Begland added.

The names of bidders for a 50.4 per cent stake in the Greek cigarette maker Sekap SA are due to be announced tomorrow, according to a Bloomberg News story quoting a Kathimerini newspaper report and relayed by the TMA.

Due diligence is to be completed by the end of October.