Author: Staff Writer

U.S. Fourth Circuit Denies PMTA Appeal

The Fourth Circuit on Monday dismissed an appeal from various vaping groups challenging a compliance deadline for vapor products. The decision states that January directives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have rendered the appeal moot.
In a per curiam opinion, the appellate judges held that guidance issued by the FDA in January moots the vape groups’ appeal because that guidance supersedes older directives from August 2017 at issue in the appeal and leaves “no possible meaningful relief” that the court could grant, according to law360.com.
“Any ruling by this court as to the procedural or substantive reasonableness of the August 2017 guidance would amount to nothing more than an advisory opinion,” the court said.
The appeal stems from a Maryland district court ruling that ordered the agency to set a May 2020 deadline for premarket tobacco product applications (PMTA) on smokeless tobacco products. The FDA, along with various health and anti-vaping groups, had argued that the January guidance restricting the sale of flavored, cartridge-based vapes rendered moot the vape groups’ appeal.
“Because the enforcement timetable for e-cigarettes set out in the January 2020 guidance is independent of the district court’s order, an order by this court reversing the district court would have no effect on FDA’s enforcement of the statute and regulations against e-cigarette manufacturers,” the agency had previously said.
But the vape groups disagreed, saying the January guidance was enacted without proper notice-and-comment procedures, according to the opinion.
While the court said it can’t offer the vape groups relief in this case, the panel added in a footnote that the groups can challenge the January guidance in a separate action in federal court. The panel also ruled that a Maryland district court did not abuse its discretion in denying cigar industry groups’ motion to intervene, saying those groups did not intervene in a timely manner.
Counsel for the cigar and vape groups and a representative of the FDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Last month, a Maryland federal judge said that in light of the coronavirus pandemic, he would grant a 120-day extension to the May 12 deadline for e-cigarette PMTAs, which have proceeded slowly since the FDA first determined vapes should be regulated like tobacco products. The new deadline is Sept. 9, 2020.
The FDA had previously asked the Fourth Circuit for approval for the lower court to extend the May deadline, saying it would not affect the merits of the appeal brought by the industry groups. The FDA said many of the laboratories and research organizations conducting the clinical trials for the regulatory applications have shut down or otherwise halted in-person testing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public health groups previously sought to accelerate the FDA’s regulation of vaping products under the Tobacco Control Act, citing vaping-related lung injuries that sickened thousands of people and left nearly 70 dead in 2019. In July 2019, a Maryland district judge effectively allowed the FDA to set the May 2020 deadline, prompting the vape groups to claim the decision was an arbitrary overextension of both the FDA and the court’s authority.
The vape groups had also argued that the May deadline left too little time for manufacturers to file complete applications. Cigar industry groups that filed joint briefs on appeal argued that the district court’s order on deadlines unfairly ensnared cigar and pipe tobacco manufacturers as well.
May 5, 2020
Scientists Urge Caution With Smoking-and-Covid Claims

Image by maja7777 from Pixabay
Recent studies that have found a disproportionally low number of smokers among Covid-19 patients have not provided direct evidence that smoking is protective against the illness, according to Health Feedback, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to science education.
Claims that smoking might protect against Covid-19 have been reported in several media outlets and are currently going viral, with more than 410,000 interactions on Facebook in April 2020.
However, the Health Feedback scientists point out several problems with findings. A French study, for example, did not appropriately factor in comorbidities such as diabetes and hypertension, which can also adversely affect the clinical course of Covid-19, according to the Health Feedback scientists.
“While the preprint did report the prevalence of such conditions within the combined study cohort of inpatients and outpatients, it did not report age or disease prevalence according to smoking status,” they wrote. “It is therefore unclear whether the nonsmoking group comprised more older individuals and/or those with preexisting health conditions than the other, which might have influenced the results.”
Other studies showed similar shortcomings, according to the Health Feedback scientists.
While acknowledging that the findings of disproportionally low numbers of smokers among Covid-19 patients are interesting and deserving of further investigation, the Health Feedback scientists say it would be unwise to begin smoking based on unproven claims that it might protect against Covid-19.

May 4, 2020
Industry Threatens Lawsuit Over Tobacco Ban Extension

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The tobacco industry is threatening legal action after South Africa reversed a decision to end its ban on the sale of tobacco products.
To prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the government earlier this year suspended sales of cigarettes. The ban was scheduled to end on May 1, but on Wednesday, the government suddenly reversed course after it received 2,000 requests to keep the measure in place.
Retailers had placed thousands of orders for cigarette and vapor products ahead of the anticipated lifting of the ban.
Smokers across the country fumed, with an online petition garnering close to half a million signatures by May 1.
British American Tobacco (BAT) South Africa complained that, unlike the ban’s supporters, the tobacco industry, retailers and tobacco consumers were not given an opportunity to comment on the proposed reinstatement of the ban.
“This was grossly unfair and unlawful,” said BAT, adding that the online petition of more than 400,000 in favor of lifting the ban dwarfed the 2,000 individual submissions.
Meanwhile, the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association said it was confident of overturning the ban, having decided to proceed with legal action after the government’s backtrack.
“We had a meeting with our legal team, and the decision was unanimous, and we will be proceeding with the legal steps,” said chairperson Sinenhlanhla Mnguni.
Shadrack Sibisi, chairperson of the South Africa Tobacco Transformation Alliance, which represents black emerging tobacco farmers, said the continued ban would impact more than 8,000 workers and 30,000 dependents.
“Our losses are huge. From March 27 until today, we have sold nothing,” he said. “We harvested in early January and were ready to go, but then lockdown happened. We have been sitting with boxes ready, and now with the recent rains we are going to have to redry and repackage. The tobacco still needs to be processed.”
Others applauded the government’s decision to continue the tobacco sales ban, saying that health considerations supersede commercial interests. “While the right of the individual is important, when we are facing a crisis that poses a danger to society, the rights of the collective to health must take precedence,” said Professor Pamela Naidoo of the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
May 4, 2020
The Natural Experience

Photo: Republic Technologies International
Republic Technologies burnishes its environmental credentials.
By George Gay
When Santiago Sanchez of Republic Technologies International (RTI) responded to my request for information about the current state of the RYO/MYO sector, he suggested that I might like to watch a video about how his company had taken part in a program aimed at helping to regenerate areas of Kenya where, for various, often multiple reasons, the environment had become degraded. He warned me that it was “a bit long” but assured me that it was worth watching.
I must admit that normally my heart sinks when I’m asked to watch company videos, but I didn’t find this one overly long, and I thought it was well worth watching. It concerned something that I had known almost nothing about, and it helped me to understand RTI’s approach to its business and its products. The company’s website (www.natural-experience.com/en/natural-world) says that it is dedicated to respecting the environment by reducing waste wherever possible and otherwise reusing or recycling products. “We are committed to quality, human relationships and the environment,” the website says.
Okay, these could be empty words, but watch the video (https://bit.ly/2woh50K) and I think you will find evidence that, at least in respect of the fine line of gum that runs along one edge of each RYO rolling paper produced by RTI, the issues of quality, human relationships and the environment are all to the fore and addressed in ways that might surprise. The idea of an RYO/MYO accessories (and e-liquids) company being indirectly involved in planting trees from the air is, I think, something that would raise questions in the mind of even the most uninquisitive person.
I won’t go into any details here because the video is far more descriptive than I can be, but I shall point out simply that RTI’s support of the nongovernmental organization Seedballs Kenya, through its OCB brand, is linked to RTI’s use on its cigarette booklet papers only of pure, organic, vegan-friendly gum arabic that is extracted from African acacia trees—support that, in turn, helps sustain the livelihoods of the people who harvest and carry out the initial processing of the gum arabic.

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Beyond gum
But RTI has been in the vanguard of addressing environmental issues that go far beyond gum arabic. For instance, the hemp that it uses to produce thin but strong rolling papers is grown organically without the use of insecticides or even irrigated water. And, importantly, the company provides information about its annual needs to the cooperative of French farmers who produce the hemp to ensure that the cooperative can manage its output in a sustainable way.
At the same time, the company offers RYO filters that are made of pure cellulose fibers sourced from sustainably managed forests. They are unbleached and naturally biodegradable and, RTI says, provide a better filtration than is provided by other types of filters. And then there are the rolling paper packs that are produced from recycled paper and printed with vegetable inks that are low in odor and have low-migration properties.
With such an emphasis on respecting the environment, it would be reasonable to expect that RTI and its OCB brand, despite their tobacco connection, would be welcomed as part of the family of responsible companies and products. But that is not necessarily the case. Sanchez told me that the Belgian government has decided that it is contrary to the provisions of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) to allow rolling paper packs to bear messages attesting to the positive credentials of the papers—messages such as “unbleached” or “organic.” I’m not sure, but I guess this will have come about because of the tortured logic that says that consumers, on seeing, for instance, that papers are organic, will be encouraged to smoke. It assumes that consumers’ thinking so lacks nuance that they cannot tell the difference between organic beetroot and organic rat poison.

RTI has further burnished its environmental credentials with the launch, under its OCB brand name, of the Virgin Paper Roll Kit comprising 32 slim paper leaves, 32 unbleached cardboard filters and a foldable rolling tray and rubber band to store the kit. The virgin paper is sourced from Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood and involves no animal testing. It is unbleached, and no chalk or dyes are used in its production. The gum used on the paper is pure gum arabic, and the packaging is printed with vegetable-based inks.
Worrying developments
Fortunately, Belgium is the only EU member state to take this stance. But its doing so shows up one of the problems that a company such as RTI faces. Because the various states, when transposing EU regulations into national laws, can interpret those regulations differently, the TPD does not provide the consistent rulebook that it might appear to provide.
And this is significant because though as an RYO/MYO accessories provider, RTI is not greatly affected by the TPD in a direct way, it of course suffers the cold winds of the TPD that blow through the manufacturers of RYO and MYO tobaccos. And those cold winds keep blowing. While the revision of TPD2 is still about a year away, Sanchez says, he is already hearing comments about how TPD3 will add further restrictions. And he is rightly concerned because, as he pointed out, the imagination of EU regulators is boundless in this area.
Another issue that is likely to cause problems for the tobacco industry in general is the upcoming EU directive on single-use plastics that will probably embrace the “polluter pays” principle where the polluter is interpreted as the manufacturer—of acetate filters, for instance—rather than the consumer who carelessly discards the item.
Meanwhile, things are also tough in the U.S. where, for instance, the process that manufacturers have to go through to obtain approval from the Food and Drug Administration to put a new or modified product on the market seems so complex as to be unreasonable. Sanchez said that it was hardly possible for small RYO/MYO players to comply with these requirements and that some companies had withdrawn from the market. RTI, he added, had to increase its workforce just to do the testing and create the thousands of documents that were needed for compliance.
Standardized packaging is another issue making life difficult—and not only in an indirect way. Although it seems to beggar belief, two countries, Israel and Canada, have implemented standardized packaging requirements for rolling paper booklets while Belgium has done the same for booklets that carry the same brand name as a tobacco product.
But one of the most worrying developments that will inevitably affect RTI indirectly is the tendency for some countries to close or reduce the tax differentials between those applied to cigarettes and those applied to RYO/MYO tobacco. Portugal and the Czech Republic have already closed the gap, and the U.K. in March moved to reduce the difference.
And, of course, RTI is plagued by the availability of counterfeit rolling paper booklets and the reluctance of many countries to take effective action against such illegal trade. Sanchez estimates that just a small proportion of counterfeit products are being intercepted in the EU and the U.S. but is claiming some success for a unique QR code system that the company has introduced and that allows wholesalers, retailers and consumers to check whether they are buying genuine products.
Looking on the bright side, Sanchez says that RYO/MYO companies are generally doing better than the manufacturers of factory-made cigarettes and that RTI is doing particularly well. But, as always, there’s a catch. He said that RTI had been developing its presence on a number of markets—before, that is, the coronavirus crisis had raised its head. The situation was now complex, he added, and it was just too difficult to predict what the future might hold.

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George Gay is Tobacco Reporter’s European editor, but his territory spans the globe. Based in London, George has covered the tobacco industry since 1982, initially for a U.K.-based publication and since 2004 for Tobacco Reporter. George’s understanding of industry issues, combined with his keen sense of observation and dry wit, have earned him a loyal following among Tobacco Reporter’s readers.

May 1, 2020
Cerulean Presents X-Ray Measurement Technology

Cerulean has introduced into its Quantum Neo physical test station a shelf capable of routinely and rapidly X-ray imaging cigarettes and filters.
The need arose from the limitations of current inspection methods when testing complex, combined products such as those used for tobacco-heating products. X-ray imaging allows visualization and accurate measurement of the size and position of hidden elements without damaging or destroying the product under test. Compliant with all U.K. radiological protection standards, the fully shielded system is suitable for the factory floor for automated routine product analysis.
Beyond the obvious R&D application, adding the powerful X-ray tool to the Quantum Neo QA/QC stack enables the producer to speed product release to the market with confidence that the constructional features in his products are fully compliant to specification. The power of the tool can be applied to complex tobacco-heating products and conventional products. Location of flavor capsules radially and longitudinally is simple and not limited by the proximity of other capsules or features, such as carbon filters, a significant limitation of microwave systems.
The Cerulean system utilizes a low-power X-ray source and a custom detector array. This arrangement (patent pending) produces a full rod image in less than six seconds. A suite of advanced software tools, automatically applied to the brand specification, measures hidden features’ length and size with an accuracy of up to 20 microns. Additionally, tube concentricity, capsule position and integrity as well as voids and defects can be detected and measured. Thick or metalized tipping paper does not present difficulties of measurement for the system.
The straightforward software tools make this suitable for use by operators and technicians as well as laboratory scientists.
This novel hardware configuration is both robust and competitively priced when compared with more conventional standalone systems such as CAT scanners.
Integrating the X-ray shelf (designated “Q” by Cerulean) into the Quantum Neo test station provides a powerful analytical tool when coupled with more conventional measurements, such as PDV, size or weight measurements, with the added benefit of leveraging other Quantum Neo capabilities, such as autosampling from the mass flow or from a GD combiner for the ultimate in QA measurements.
Orders for Quantum Neo containing the Q shelf can now be taken on standard lead times.
May 1, 2020
Sampoerna Suspends Operations After Covid Deaths

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Indonesian cigarette manufacturer Sampoerna temporarily closed a cigarette factory in East Java after two workers died of the coronavirus, reports The Straits Times, citing local authorities in Jakarta.
Two of the company’s laborers who worked in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, died on April 14 and tested positive for Covid-19. Nine fellow workers who showed symptoms later were sent to a hospital for treatment, local media reported.
As many as 323 workers who did not show symptoms underwent rapid tests and 63 of them had positive results, state news agency Antara reported.
With some 26,000 workers, Sampoerna is the biggest cigarette producer in Indonesia, where about 60 percent of the male population are smokers. The company is 92.5 percent owned by Philip Morris International.
The factory’s closure is unlikely to affect the company’s total production as Sampoerna has cigarette factories in several other locations.
Indonesia has 10,100 Covid-19 confirmed cases, with 792 deaths as of April 30—the highest number of coronavirus fatalities in South-east Asia.
May 1, 2020
High Rejections Mar Chinkhoma Market

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Tama Farmers Trust president Abel Kalima Banda called for an emergency meeting of all stakeholders following high tobacco rejections at the Chinkhoma auction floors in Kasungu, Malawi.
As of Wednesday, the rejection rate was hovering at 59 percent, according to The Nyasa Times.
However, auction floors officials are attributing this to a new auction system which they call secret bidding.
They say things will be back to normal when tobacco farmers and officials get used to the new system.
As of Wednesday, tobacco on auction was fetching $1.50 per kg whilst contract tobacco was fetching $2.50 per kg.
May 1, 2020
Stay of Execution

The postponed due date for premarket tobacco product applications is unlikely to help those who weren’t ready for the May 12 deadline.
By Kenneth Robeson
In 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act authorized the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco. This federal law requires products introduced to the marketplace after Feb. 15, 2007, to receive marketing authorization from the FDA prior to being offered for sale. The same marketing authorization requirement was later extended to cigars, pipe tobacco, electronic cigarettes, vapor products, hookah and alternative nicotine products, effective Aug. 8, 2016.
The deadline to file premarket tobacco product applications (PMTAs) has changed several times. Following a lawsuit by public health groups, the District Court of Maryland in July 2019 ordered the FDA to bring forward its due date from Aug. 8, 2022, to May 12, 2020.
After the coronavirus erupted, the FDA requested a 120-day extension, citing lab and research organization closures, travel restrictions and the reallocation of some Center for Tobacco Products employees to the U.S. Public Health Service among other reasons that were making it difficult to review applications.
On April 22, a U.S. court granted the FDA’s request, postponing the deadline to Sept. 9, 2020.
While the ruling is welcome, the disruption caused by the coronavirus does not necessarily buy time for applicants, many of whom are confronting the same obstacles to their operations as the FDA. Before the coronavirus hit the U.S. in full swing, Tobacco Reporter assessed the industry’s preparedness for the May 12 deadline. Because the Covid-19 crisis has stalled many corporate activities, the conclusions of our assessment are likely to be just as valid for September as they were for May.
So, is the industry ready?
“Not as a whole,” believes Barnaby Page, editorial director of London-based ECigIntelligence and TobaccoIntelligence, a provider of global market and regulatory analysis, legal tracking and quantitative data for the e-cigarette, heated tobacco and combustible alternatives sector. “Many of the more well-resourced and clued-up companies are ready; many of the others are not.”
The reason, Page thinks, is that the requirements of the PMTA process “will certainly have been a difficulty for many smaller companies. But it is also fair to say that much of the industry ignored the issue for a long time even while it was obviously coming—and that even if the PMTA deadline were another two years away, many companies probably still wouldn’t be ready,” he says. “So I certainly don’t think it can be blamed entirely, or even substantially, on the change in deadline [from Aug. 8, 2022, to May 12, 2020].”
“The question of readiness is irrelevant,” insists Darryl Jayson, vice president of TMA, a member-driven nonprofit source of industry information and a convener of stakeholders. Vapor product manufacturers and importers must file their PMTAs with the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) by the deadline, he argues, and cigar and pipe tobacco manufacturers and importers must file their substantial equivalence (SE) reports by the deadline. “If the application is in any way incomplete, the FDA CTP, through its case worker, will contact the applicant and work toward a complete application. The burden of work for an SE applicant is less than that of a PMTA applicant.”
All PMTA and SE applicants are currently working toward the deadline, Jayson emphasizes. “A company starting at this late date—early March—would not be able to adequately issue an initial draft of the application,” he says. Product testing remains paramount for all PMTA applicants, who must accompany their applications with population studies.
For retailers, Jayson continues, the FDA CTP will issue sales bans for those products that are not within the PMTA/SE process. Retailers are to follow these sales bans and pull all illegal product off their shelves or web menu lists. For consumers, says Jayson, the deadline might mean that some of the tobacco/vapor products that they use may no longer be for sale [on] the U.S. market.”

Buying time
For a company that has not yet started preparations, time is now tight, Page warns. Submitting bare-bones applications for a very limited number of products “just might buy them enough time to get fuller applications in place.” In the meantime, planning for the removal of some products from the market “would be wise. And some companies, of course, are looking at markets outside vapor—for example, CBD—to avoid the PMTA process entirely or minimize its impact on them.”
For retailers and consumers, Page predicts, the immediate impact will be negligible. Longer term, some brands and product lines will undoubtedly disappear from the market, but most consumers will be able to find a substitute. “Vape stores could be badly hit. Our research suggests 20 percent-plus could close, though exactly how strong this impact is depends on what is and isn’t approved by the FDA.” The market “will likely be less confusing due to a smaller number of products, and at the low end, there could be less price competition.”
“I think [the PMTA deadline] is going to get delayed anyway,” noted Ed Kashouty before the coronavirus hit the U.S. Kashouty is the owner of cigar maker Hiram & Solomon, which is based in Nicaragua, has offices in Brick, New Jersey, and distributes across Florida. “We are not ready for it,” he says. “We have no clue what it’s going to take because the FDA has no clue about what they are going to do. What we have heard is that any product sent to [the] FDA for approval is going to take two or three years anyway; they have no guidelines themselves on what they want.”
At present, adds Kashouty, who also owns and operates the Lakewood Exxon convenience store in New Jersey, “it doesn’t mean very much for us. But some of our product we may not be able to display anymore because they are not pre-2007.” The inevitable result, he figures, will be that “the big companies like General Cigar are going to pump more cigars [onto] the market. The new companies are going to disappear.”
As yet, it is not known how many applications will be submitted “or, crucially, how many will be approved,” Page notes. “But assuming the number is more than minimal, the outlook for consumers and the retail industry as a whole is not terrible, though there’s much more risk for vape stores than for mainstream retail.” For manufacturers, “it’s either very positive or highly negative, depending on the FDA’s response.”
Leaving aside legal challenges that he characterizes as “probably more hopeful than realistic,” Page feels the biggest complaint probably concerns the requirements of the PMTA process in terms of demonstrating a product’s effect on public health. “A lot of information is required.” However, he continues, the FDA has taken definite steps to make this easier without destroying the value of the process, and many other regulated industries have to put up with similar regimens. “It’s simply that the vapor industry is not accustomed to it.”
So what will the landscape look like after the filings?
Page says it is impossible to say at this stage. “The first approvals may provide an indicator of what the FDA is looking for. Its decision on Juul applications will also be significant. And, beyond the PMTA process, how well IQOS fares in the market over the next year to 18 months is also a potentially game-changing factor.”
Industry players need to know today “only that the time for railing against the injustices of the PMTA system is probably past,” Page concludes. “More important now is to figure out how to work within it.”

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May 1, 2020
Job Virgin Unbleached Cone Packs

Job rolling papers are now available in virgin unbleached cone packs.
Pre-rolled and equipped with a tip to offer an easier way to pack, fill and enjoy, Job Virgin Cones are made of unbleached, chlorine-free and dye-free fibers that are responsibly harvested.
Vegan and GMO-free, Job Virgin Cones are ultrathin (12 grams per square meter) and lightly porous for a slow burn and truer taste with minimal ash. With their natural brown hue, natural acacia gum adhesive and distinctive Job watermark, the cones are part of the recently introduced Job Virgin product line, which is intended for the discerning and eco-conscious consumer who prioritizes quality, flavor and sustainability.
Job Virgin Cone packs are available in two retail sizes: 1 1/4 size (six cones per pack) and king size (three cones per pack). They are packed 32 packs per display and 24 displays per case.
The top-selling premium paper brand in the United States with a legacy that goes back to 1838, Job is family-owned and distributed by Republic Tobacco, the largest roll-your-own/make-your-own distributor in the United States.
May 1, 2020

The Green Gold

Can oriental tobacco regain its preeminent status in Bulgaria?

By Sebastian Zimmel

Tobacco merchant Franz Szoncsitz of SilverSun may be considered “the last man standing” of the former Austrian tobacco empire. Coincidentally, perhaps, his head office is not far from Schoenbrunn, the former imperial palace in Vienna. Today, Szoncsitz is active mostly in Bulgaria where he works with oriental tobacco. After a remarkable career in the international tobacco business, holding positions of increasing seniority with companies such as Dimon, CdF and Hail & Cotton, leaf tobacco veteran Gustav Stangl also holds a considerable share in SilverSun.

Lighting one of his last oriental oval cigarettes, Szoncsitz explains the benefits of oriental tobacco. At the start of the 20th century, oriental tobacco dominated the taste of European cigarettes. The oriental tobacco plant is characterized by its small leaves and pink blossoms. One kilogram of dried oriental tobacco contains 1,400 to 1,500 dried leaves with an average size of about 10 cm. A kilogram of Virginia tobacco, by contrast, contains 100 leaves to 200 leaves with an average size of 40 cm. These plants grow up to 2 meters tall—twice the length of oriental tobacco plants.

Unlike other tobacco plants, oriental tobacco is harvested by hand. After the harvest, workers thread the leaves on strings and let them cure in the sun for about eight weeks. Next, they are de-stringed and packed in cartons prepared for sale in November.

Oriental tobacco grows mostly in the Balkans—in Turkey, Greece, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. Oriental tobacco grows in poor, often stony soils. The farms are small, often run by families of Turkish ethnic origin. The average age of farmers is about 60. Bulgaria’s former communist regime was not keen on the Turkish culture, forcing ethnic Turks to adopt Bulgarian names, for example. Over the summer of 1989 when the communist reign ended in Bulgaria, some 300,000 ethnic Turks left for Turkey.

Oriental tobacco fields are generally small; the yearly production of dried oriental tobacco is about 500 kg to 1,000 kg per farm. Between 40,000 people to 50,000 people in the region depend on tobacco for their livelihoods. Like other Eastern European countries, Bulgaria has suffered a severe drop in its population; the number of inhabitants dropped from 9 million in 1990 to 7 million today. This makes it challenging for companies such as SilverSun to find skilled staff.

Oriental tobacco in cigarette blends

Nonetheless, the company has managed to attract talented employees. One of them is Stefan Kuzmanov, who serves as the leaf manager of SilverSun Bulgaria, which is headquartered in Haskovo, about two hours by car from Sofia. A former chief blender at Bulgartabac, Kuzmanov describes the different blends. Up to World War II, an oriental cigarette—usually oval shaped—contained 50 percent or more oriental tobacco (also see chart).

Cigarette blend	(Old) American blend	European blend (after 1945)	Cigarette blend today	Approximate average price
Flue-cured Virginia	50 percent	50 percent	60 percent	$5 per kg
Burley	30 percent	20 percent	30 percent	$4 per kg
Oriental	20 percent	30 percent	10 percent	$8 per kg
Note: This chart leaves out a certain percentage of stems and tobacco foil that are also are used in cigarette blends.

Oriental tobacco is labor intensive, which means it is expensive. What’s more, over the past decades, the market has shifted toward “lighter” cigarettes with lower tar deliveries, which can be achieved using filter and paper technology. With a significant concentration of sugar and aetheric oils, oriental tobacco has a higher tar yield than other tobaccos but also more taste and aroma. Tobacco connoisseurs value the leaf’s mild and sweet taste.

In Kuzmanov’s opinion, cigarette brands are losing their individuality, a development that he attributes to globalization. Today, there are only four big companies, all of them listed on the stock exchange. By contrast, 50 years ago, nearly every country had its own cigarette company, either state owned or family owned. As a result, the global production of oriental tobacco is now far lower than that of burley and Virginia tobaccos.

The Bulgarian tobacco business has faced many ups and downs. Ivanka Varkova, who has worked for Bulgartabac Sofia since 1996, notes that over the past 30 years, the business has changed beyond recognition. Within COMECON, the economic organization of communist countries, Bulgaria was the tobacco and cigarette specialist. Oriental tobacco production was stable at around 100,000 tons per year. Some 75 percent of this volume, including 50 billion cigarettes and 20,000 tons of tobacco, was sold and shipped to the former Soviet Union. Bulgaria cultivated 13 varieties of oriental tobaccos.

The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe brought massive changes. Hastily assembled “working brigades” could not replace the exodus of skilled ethnic Turkish labor and harvest the deserted fields. So quantity and quality decreased to a historic low.

Socotab is in a strategic partnership with Universal and operates in all Balkan countries growing oriental tobacco. Present in Bulgaria since 2002, the company operates a leaf processing facility in Plovdiv. Other players include Seke and Missirian.

Austria Tabak affiliate AEO entered the market in the 1990s and sold its operations to Dimon (now part of Pyxus subsidiary Alliance One International) in 1994. Szoncsitz and Beatrix Fiala helped build exports of Bulgarian oriental tobacco, first with AEO and later with SilverSun. They faced many ups and downs, inflation, new EU tobacco regulations and finally a slow economic recovery in Bulgaria. Bulgarian oriental tobacco is divided into Basma from the southern region and Kabakoulak from the northern region. Farmers still get some national subsidies for their production.

Climatic conditions were favorable in 2019, and tobacco quality has been excellent, according to local experts. Though volumes of all tobacco types went down by an estimated 21 percent, Bulgarian oriental tobacco stabilized at about 6,000 tons compared with 70,000 tons in Turkey, 26,000 tons in North Macedonia and 16,000 tons in Greece.

Will oriental tobacco ever recover its status of “Bulgarian gold”? Szoncsitz looks at the future with mixed feelings. He struggles with a massive loss of manpower and a shrinking demand. The future of oriental tobacco, he says, lies in the hands of its users—the international tobacco companies and, of course, their customers, the smokers.

May 1, 2020

Author: Staff Writer

Republic Technologies burnishes its environmental credentials.

Beyond gum

Worrying developments

The postponed due date for premarket tobacco product applications is unlikely to help those who weren’t ready for the May 12 deadline.

Buying time

Can oriental tobacco regain its preeminent status in Bulgaria?

Oriental tobacco in cigarette blends