Category: Leaf

Reassuring growers
The government of Tanzania has promised to ensure that all 12,000 tons of tobacco currently in the hands of farmers will be purchased, according to a local news report.
Tobacco merchants stopped buying leaf after being fined THS11 billion ($4.78 million) by the Fair Competition Commission.
Deputy Minister for Agriculture Hussein Bashe told the National Assembly on Wednesday that the crisis had been solved.
“The crisis which caused them to stop buying the cash crop is now over, and all the remaining tobacco will be bought,” said Bashe.
Tobacco is Tanzania’s second-largest export earner after cashew nuts.
September 5, 2019
Preparing for harvest
Farmers in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, expect to plant about 20,050 hectares of tobacco for the 2019-2020 season, according to local press reports.
Accounting for around 65 percent of production, Pinar del Rio is the country’s largest producer and supplier of the aromatic leaf, which is used to produce Cuba’s famous cigars.
Cuba harvested more than 30,000 tons of tobacco for the second consecutive year in 2018, when about 300 million hand-rolled cigars were produced on the island, almost 100 million of them for export.
The tobacco industry is the fourth biggest contributor to Cuba’s gross domestic product. In 2018, its exports reached almost $260 million.
The sector employs about 200,000 workers on the island, with up to 250,000 at the peak of the harvest.
August 2, 2019
Fears about forex
Tobacco sales in Malawi are down compared to the same period last year, bringing fears that the country might face foreign exchange shortages, reports the Nyasa Times.
Statistics show that on the 14th week of trading on auction floors, 1.2 million tons of tobacco has fetched MWK138 billion ($185 million) so far. During the same period last year, 1.5 million tons of tobacco was sold, fetching over MWK170 billion
Some economists say this is as a result of the anti-tobacco campaign worldwide, but the Tobacco Control Commission maintains the tobacco prices are now picking up.

August 1, 2019
Seed sales plunge
Tobacco seed sales in Zimbabwe have plummeted 55.2 percent as farmers grapple with viability challenges ahead of the 2019/2020 season, reports Newsday.
As of July 22, 2019, only 320 kilograms had been bought by farmers against the 715 kilograms purchased during the same period last year.
“Poor prices (at the auction floors) are said to have affected the preparation of seedbeds for the coming crop,” said Zimbabwe Tobacco Association chief executive Rodney Ambrose.
“These seedbeds should have been planted in June, but many growers were not in a good enough financial position to start the process. So, more bad news might be on the way. We sincerely hope seed sales and farmers crop preparations improve in the next month.”
July 29, 2019
Farm worker abuse alleged
British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands and Philip Morris International are buying leaf tobacco that could have been picked by exploited African migrants working in Italy, according to a story by Luca Muzi and Lorenzo Tondo for The Guardian.
Workers, including ‘children’, reportedly said they were forced to work up to 12 hours a day without contracts or sufficient health and safety equipment in Campania, a region that produces more than a third of Italy’s tobacco.
The Guardian investigation, which spanned three years, found that some workers from Africa were paid about €3 an hour, about half the amount paid to other workers, who were mostly Albanians, Romanians and Italians.
Tammaro Della Corte, leader of the General Confederation of the Italian Workers labor union in Caserta, was quoted as saying: “Unfortunately, the reality of the work conditions in the agricultural sector in the province of Caserta, including the tobacco industry, is marked by a deep labor exploitation, low wages, illegal contracts and an impressive presence of the caporalato [illegal hiring], including extortion and blackmailing of the workers.”
According to an internal report by the farmers’ organisation ONT Italia, seen by The Guardian and confirmed by a document from the European Leaf Tobacco Interbranch, BAT, Imperial and PMI bought three-fifths of Italian tobacco in 2017. PMI alone bought 21,000 tons of the 50,000 tons harvested that year.
The Guardian quoted these companies as saying they bought tobacco from suppliers who operated under a strict code of conduct to ensure fair treatment of workers. PMI reportedly said it had not come across any abuse, while BAT and Imperial said they would investigate any complaints brought to their attention.
June 3, 2019
Grower returns squeezed
Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) has hiked weighing and auction floor charges, further eroding growers’ earnings, according to a story by Fidelity Mhlanga for Newsday.
The charge has been increased from US$4.50 per bale last season to US$7.70 per bale this season, much to the chagrin of growers who feel their earnings are being squeezed.
Mhlanga said that apart from the weighing and auction fees, other deductions incurred by farmers included a tobacco levy of 0.75 percent, TIMB stop order levies of 0.8 percent, and the Ministry of Agriculture levy of US$0.875c per kg.
An industry source told NewsDay that the move by the TIMB would affect the viability of tobacco growing, and added that pegging fees in US$ was in violation of Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019 that required ‘prices’ to be charged in RTGS dollars [Real Time Gross Transfer dollars made up of bond notes, bond coins and RTGS balances (electronic money)].
The sources said the TIMB had not consulted with stakeholders in coming up with a decision that ultimately affected growers’ livelihoods.
Contacted for a comment, TIMB spokesperson Isheunesu Moyo attributed the increase in auction fees to an upsurge in the cost structure at the auction floors. “As regulators we consider the viability of all stakeholders,” he said. “The cost structure of auction floors has gone up as a result of what we expect of them, such as those related to the new payment system, among others.”
At a time when the amount of tobacco that is sold via the auction floors is estimated at 20 percent, there is concern that the increase in charges could drive more growers to contract floors where charges remain low.
March 28, 2019
Crop down “significantly”
Zimbabwe is likely to suffer a “significant” fall in flue-cured tobacco output this year in the wake of cyclone Idai, according to a story in The Chronicle quoting the CEO of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), Dr Andrew Matibiri.
The cyclone was said to have struck most parts of the provinces of Manicaland and Mashonaland East.
Matibiri said an assessment was underway to establish the damage that had been caused.
But it was known that a lot of farmers in Manicaland and parts of Mashonaland East had lost tobacco in the field, and that about 550 flue-cured barns had collapsed.
“As a result of the adverse effects of the calamity, there is going to be a significant decline of tobacco output this year,” Matibiri said. “We are yet to account how much we are likely to lose as a result of the disaster.”
The Chronicle story said that last year Zimbabwe had produced a record flue-cured tobacco crop of 253 million kg.
This year’s tobacco selling season had been opened by Vice President Kembo Mohadi on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a story in The Sunday Mail had it that tobacco sales were expected to pick up at tobacco auction floors from today after the Government scrapped, with immediate effect, a two percent Intermediated Money Transfer Tax on tobacco sales and confirmed that farmers would get half of their earnings in US dollars.
Sales had been slow since the opening of the floors with some farmers reportedly holding on to their tobacco because of dissatisfaction with the prices being offered.
March 25, 2019
Malawi crop confirmed
The torrential rain associated with Cyclone Idai has not affected tobacco production in Malawi, according to a story in The Maravi Post quoting the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC).
The rain has caused devastating floods in some parts of the country, but, reportedly, not in the areas where tobacco is grown.
Addressing the Media Network on Tobacco (MNT) on Wednesday in the capital, Lilongwe, TCC CEO, Kayisi Sadala said a second crop estimate had put tobacco production at 205.5 million kg, fractionally more than that of the previous season, 202 million kg.
Meanwhile, the MNT acting vice chairperson, Arnold Mnelemba, reminded the TCC of child labor issues, saying they were critical and needed to be addressed.
He said, too, that there was a need for a program of afforestation to make the growing of the crop sustainable.
March 22, 2019
Production down 18 percent
Cambodia’s leaf-tobacco production fell last year, according to a story in The Phnom Penh Post citing figures from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
Cambodia produced 7,454 tons of tobacco last year on 5,743 ha, down respectively 18 percent from 9,089 tons and 16 percent from 6,859 ha the previous season.
Sum Ra, an agricultural office holder in Tbong Khmum province, the country’s largest producer of leaf, said tobacco cultivation had decreased during the past few years due to market fluctuations.
“Tobacco cultivation is not much of a challenge; it is easy to grow along the river,” he said.
“Tobacco cultivation increases and decreases depending on market fluctuations. Farmers will alternate with corn if the tobacco market is not good.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce spokesman Seang Thay said on Monday that Cambodia still enjoyed preferential duty-free market access to Vietnam for agricultural products, including tobacco.
Under the agreement with Vietnam, Cambodia exported 1,200 tons of tobacco worth $2.37 million to Vietnam during 2017, whereas during 2016 it exported to Vietnam 989.75 tons valued at $1.91 million.
March 20, 2019
Fresh thinking needed
A network of tobacco farmers in Thailand is calling on political parties to help ease the impact of a 40 percent rise in cigarette excise tax that is scheduled for October 1, according to a story in The Nation.
Songkran Pakdeejit, president of the Burley Tobacco Farmers Association of Phetchabun, met yesterday with representatives of various political parties to discuss the effect the proposed new tax rate would have on tobacco growers.
Songkran said about 50,000 tobacco-grower households in the North, Northeast, and upper Central regions were already struggling because of annual increases in cigarette tax rates. These increases reduced the state-run Tobacco Monopoly’s cigarette sales and, therefore, its production and the amount of tobacco it bought from local growers.
Growers were very concerned that they were going to lose their livelihoods.
The network has reportedly asked the authorities to delay enforcement of the next tax rise, but has not received a response.
But because an election is due to be held in the next two weeks, Songkran asked the parties to recognize growers’ concerns and bring the issue to the attention of their parties.
At the meeting, the Thai Tobacco Trade Association released a poll result showing most grocery shops were opposed to the tax increase. Jointly conducted by the association and Nida Poll in February, the poll showed 81 per cent of respondents from 1,056 retailers across the country believed the new tax would increase the sale of illicit cigarettes. Ninety-one per cent of respondents said they would be affected by the new tax rate.
The Association director Waraporn Namat said that in the past four to five years the government had gradually increased the tobacco tax rate in the hope of reducing the number of smokers. “But the number hasn’t decreased significantly and instead they opt for buying illicit cigarettes or tobacco which are cheaper,” she added.
March 15, 2019