Author: Staff Writer

Selling Zimbabwe’s Burley crop for reasonable farmer prices is proving to be an uphill battle, according to a Zimbabwe Standard story.

Statistics from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) showed that 55,499 kg had been sold by Friday, up 83 per cent on last year’s figures.

The value of the Burley sold by Friday amounted to US$82,201, a figure that was increased from the US$22,165 realised by the same stage of the 2012 sales.

On Friday, the highest price was US$2.50 per kg and the lowest price was US$0.50 per kg.

Some analysts fear that low prices are a deterrent to the growing of the crop but the TIMB CEO, Andrew Matibiri, said prices would firm during the course of the season.

“The majority of the crop is of low quality,” he said. “We expect that when farmers start reaping higher up, the prices will also rise,” he added.

This year, the TIMB projects an output of 300,000 kg, compared with last year’s 60,000 kg.

At its peak in 1998, Burley tobacco production reached 16 million kg.

The Italian union of tobacco operators has lodged an appeal with the regional court of Lazio in an attempt to block the sale of electronic cigarettes, according to a story by Marco Tistarelli for the Epoch Times.

The Times said the appeal was the latest in a series of steps taken by the ‘tobacco industry’, which believed the spread of electronic cigarettes was hammering a business already squeezed by the illicit trade.

‘It’s unfair competition,’ said Enzo Perrotta, president of the union of tobacco operators, in a press release.

Perrotta said electronic cigarettes should be subjected to taxation in the same way that traditional cigarettes were.

And he said their distribution should be regulated.

There are now more than 1,000 stores selling electronic cigarettes and nearly 400,000 electronic cigarette consumers in Italy, according to Anafe, the association that represents the country’s vaping industry.

A recent Doxa survey showed that out of 10.8 million tobacco users, 20 per cent were using or intended to use electronic cigarettes.

The turnover for electronic cigarettes reached €90 million last year, up 25 per cent on the previous year’s turnover, according to the Italian market researcher.

Electronic cigarettes are already being subjected to increased regulation with a national ban on sales to minors and at least one public places vaping ban.

The presidents of five Spanish regions with financial interests in tobacco are joining with tobacco manufacturers, traders and the hospitality sector in opposing proposed revisions to the European Commission’s Tobacco Products Directive, according to a blog at TobaccoRelated.org.

Altadis is said to have launched the campaign that is now being headed by the ‘Table of Tobacco’.

The blog said the campaign had been focused mainly on the finance commissions of the regional parliaments, with the result that the presidents of five Spanish regions – Cantabria, Canary Islands, Extremadura, La Rioja, and Navarra – were now campaigning against the directive.

These regions were opposing the directive because of varied economic interests. Cantabria, for instance, hosted the biggest Altadis factory in Spain while Extremadura was the main tobacco growing region in the country.

Tobacco smoking has been restricted at agricultural shows in the Australian state of Tasmania as part of the state governments attempt’s to denormalize smoking, according to a story by Ben McKay for The Examiner.

Under new rulings from the director of public health, smoking will be banned in most areas, though show organizers will be allowed to designate either two or four smoking zones, depending on the size of their shows.

Smoking has been restricted previously at Tasmanian music and food festivals, carols by candlelight and many markets.

“We want Tasmanian children to grow up in a place where it is unusual for them to see someone smoking; this both protects them from the harms of second-hand smoke and reduces the likelihood they will take up smoking in the future,” said Health Minister, Michelle O’Byrne.

Tobacco smoking restrictions are going to be expanded and enforced in the PalaceMuseum of the Forbidden City, Beijing, according a story by Xie Wenting for the Global Times.

In the past, smoking was banned only in areas open to tourists while staff could smoke in their offices.

But in the future, both employees and visitors will be liable to fines if they are found to be smoking.

Although Beijing instituted a ban on smoking in historic sites in 2008 and banned smoking in all public places in 2011, neither ban is well-enforced, said Yang Jie, of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Zeng Yizhi, of the International Committee of Monuments and Sites in China, said it was necessary to ban smoking in the entire complex because the museum had many wooden structures and precious cultural relics, including silk and papers, all of which were at risk of fire.

Changes in the marketplace have forced the public health community to wrestle with the idea that some tobacco products may pose less of a health risk than others do, according to an Associated Press story quoting the new head of the US Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco control efforts, Mitch Zeller.

Speaking at the 98th Annual Meeting and All-industry Conference of the Tobacco Merchants Association in Williamsburg, Virginia, Zeller, who took over as director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products in March, told attendees the agency was making progress on a backlog of more than 3,500 new product applications.

He set out how the FDA planned to address the issue of menthol cigarettes and how it planned to regulate other tobacco products, including cigars and electronic cigarettes.

Japan Tobacco Inc’s domestic cigarette sales volume during April, at 9.6 billion, was increased by 3.2 per cent on its April 2012 volume, 9.3 billion, according to preliminary figures issued by the company today.

JT’s market share stood at 60.2 per cent in April and at 59.6 per cent for the full year to the end of March.

JT’s domestic cigarette revenue during April, at ¥53.0 billion, was increased by 3.5 per cent on its April 2012 revenue, ¥51.2 billion.

Hong Kong Customs recently confiscated property worth $18.5 million that was previously owned by the mastermind of a gang convicted in an illicit cigarette and money-laundering case, according to a 7^th Space Interactive story.

The case represented the first time that a confiscation order had been granted in respect of a cigarette smuggling conviction.
A Customs spokesperson said yesterday that the case underlined the determination of the department to tackle cigarette smuggling.

The successful confiscation of the proceeds of crime through the application of the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance had amplified the enforcement efforts, the spokesperson added.

In the court case, heard in 2010, 16 defendants were convicted on a number of charges and sentenced to between 15 and 66 months’ imprisonment.

Customs subsequently applied to the court for the confiscation of the properties, currently valued at $18.5 million, of the mastermind, his wife and sister.

The confiscation order was laid down in a district court judgement on Wednesday.

Reconnaissance International is to stage the Tax Stamp forum in Vienna on June 3-5.

The forum is said to be the only global event of its kind, bringing together tax and custom authorities, law enforcement agencies, regulators, integrators and more than 30 specialist exhibitors to discuss the issues and problems caused by the illicit trade in tobacco and alcohol.

Full details of all presenters and presentations are at visit www.taxstampforum.com/programme.