Category: Leaf

Boka Opens Auction Floor in Karoi

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Boka Tobacco Floors (BTF) has opened a tobacco sales floor in Karoi, Mashonaland West Province. This sales floor will help reduce the number of farmers traveling to Harare to sell their tobacco, ultimately helping prevent further spread of the coronavirus.
The Boka selling floor will serve farmers in Hurungwe District, including Tengwe, Kazangarare, communities around Karoi, Nyama resettlement, Nyamakate and Magunje as well as areas around Chinhoyi.
The auction space is currently a rented building, but BTF is constructing a 12,000-square-meter facility that would be ready for the 2021 selling season.
Measures compliant with the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) have been put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
May 7, 2020
Malawi: Tobacco Earnings up by 27 Percent

Archive footage: The Lilongwe tobacco auction in 2017
Malawi earned MWK7 billion ($9.51 million) from tobacco sales since the selling season opened two weeks ago, reports The Nyasa Times.
According to Tobacco Commission spokesman Hellings Nasolo, this is MWK2 billion more than what the country earned in 2019.
“The market is very impressive,” he told The Nyasa Times. “This is an increase of 27 percent.”
Tobacco markets are now open in Lilongwe, Limbe, Chinkhoma. All sales floors have implemented strict measures to prevent spread of the coronavirus.
May 7, 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

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

Zimbabwe: First Bale Fetches $4 per Kilo

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Zimbabwe’s 2020 tobacco marketing season opened Wednesday, April 29, with the first bale selling at $4 per kg, reports The Herald.
Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Perrance Shiri opened the selling season at Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) at a ceremony witnessed by his deputies—Vangelis Haritatos and Douglas Karoro—Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) officials, farmers’ unions, merchants and farmers.
Tobacco is largely funded through private contractors and loans, and tobacco farmers are considered among the most skilled in Zimbabwe, hence the calls for them to expand operations into other crops and for other farmers to emulate their skills.
Last year, the first bale sold at $4.50 per kg, and 259 million kilograms were delivered.
April 30, 2020
Methods for Lower Nicotine Validated

Photo: Matt Mullen
22nd Century Group and North Carolina State University (NCSU), have completed successful research field trials that have validated new non-GMO methodologies for reducing nicotine in tobacco plants. The research was partially funded by 22nd Century and was conducted by NCSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Science with project oversight provided by 22nd Century’s R&D team.
The research findings and paper can be viewed here.
As an alternative to older, genetic-engineering technologies that result in the creation of plants regulated as GMOs, the NCSU researchers used newer, non-CRISPR, non-GMO, gene editing technologies to consistently achieve reductions in nicotine levels by as much as 99 percent, when compared to conventional tobacco plants. This reduction in nicotine levels is believed to be caused by the inactivation of several genes believed to encode for enzymes involved in nicotine biosynthesis in the plant. 22nd Century has earlier filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to secure intellectual property rights for this non-GMO genetic approach that achieves very low nicotine content (VLNC) levels in tobacco plants using non-GMO methodologies.
“We are very pleased with the outcome of the research field trials completed in collaboration with NCSU, which demonstrate that non-GMO methodologies can be applied reliably to reduce nicotine levels in tobacco plants by up to 99 percent,” said Juan Sanchez Tamburrino, vice president of research and development for 22nd Century. “To further validate our research, 22nd Century and NCSU will conduct larger scale and more extensive field trials in additional geographies.”
The additional field trials will test these new, non-GMO, VLNC tobacco lines in multiple locations and soil conditions, allowing 22nd Century to select VLNC tobacco plants for optimal performance in different locations.
“This research marks a key milestone in 22nd Century’s reduced nicotine content tobacco R&D program and further extends our product development opportunities by enabling the creation of VLNC tobacco plants of many varieties, including bright, burley and oriental tobaccos,” said Michael Zercher, 22nd Century’s president and chief operating officer. “This non-GMO technology is also key to commercializing our VLNC tobacco cigarettes in international markets where non-GMO products are important. We are pleased with our R&D team’s progress and excited about this unique technology developed in collaboration with NCSU.”
April 30, 2020
Zimbabwe Union Calls for Auction Delay

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The National Union for Tobacco Industry and Allied Trade (NUTIAT) is calling for a delay in the opening of auction floors in Zimbabwe until the country’s lockdown is over.
The lockdown is set to end on Sunday, but the auction floors are set to open this week.
NUTIAT argues that the safety measures put in place are not enough to protect employees from contracting Covid-19.
“As tobacco employees, we are concerned about our safety if auction floors are allowed to open when the country is still under national lockdown,” said Tabuda Moyo, NUTIAT secretary-general.
“Opening up tobacco floors before end of lockdown could jeopardize the health of the workers, and with the absence of trade union leaders in the national Covid-19 taskforce, I see coronavirus increases coming to the floors. So, what we wish is that the selling and marketing season should wait until this lockdown is over,” Moyo said.
April 28, 2020
ITGA Campaigns to Help Farmers Amid Crisis

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA) in coordination with its members’ organizations is analyzing the impact of Covid-19 on tobacco farmers, particularly small noncontracted farmers.
The ITGA is developing a campaign that aims to raise awareness of the hardships farmers may face due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and provide basic conditions to the weakest link of the supply chain, not only looking at tobacco farmers but all small farmers subject to similar conditions. The ITGA is asking governments, United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other entities to support this campaign, which has specific recommendations for each country.
April 27, 2020
Zimbabwe Selling Season Starts April 29

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) announced that Zimbabwe’s tobacco selling season will officially start on April 29.
The marketing season usually begins in mid-March, but due to heavy rains and the outbreak of the coronavirus, the season has been pushed back and the government has decentralized auction floors.
Following the virus outbreak, auction floors will follow new rules to help prevent the spread of the disease. Strict handwashing procedures will be followed, temperatures will be taken at entry points and only essential personnel will be allowed on the auction floors.
“Contract tobacco sales will start on Thursday, April 30 while sales bookings and deliveries will open on Monday, April 27, 2020,” said Andrew Matibiri, TIMB chief executive. “Some contractors had already decentralized auction floors and will operate from there while others were geared for Harare. These will operate in Harare under strict guidelines.”
April 27, 2020
Leaf Sales Commence in Malawi

Photo: Taco Tuinstra
Maximum prices for contract tobacco reached $2.30 per kg while noncontract leaf fetched $1.20 on the first day of the tobacco selling season in Malawi.
Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation Francis Kasaila on Monday officially opened the 2020 marketing season at Lilongwe Auction Floors with a secret price-bidding exercise.
With the social distancing measures to combat the coronavirus, only about 3,000 tobacco bales will be put up for sale daily. In past years, about 10,000 bales would be put up for sale per day.
In his remarks, minister Kasaila urged the stakeholders to work with farmers to make sure that they produce high-quality leaf.
He expressed his optimism that this year’s marketing season will be good and satisfactory despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
The minister further commended the Tobacco Commission, Auction Holding Limited (AHL) and the tobacco-buying companies for taking proactive measures against the virus pandemic as evident in the availability of sanitizing and hand-washing materials at the floors and around the AHL premises.

April 21, 2020