Category: Leaf

  • Sales set to start

    Sales set to start

    Zimbabwe’s 2019 flue-cured tobacco marketing season is scheduled to start on March 20, according to a story by Kudakwashe Mhundwa for The Herald, quoting the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).

    The start of the marketing season was delayed this year because planting was held up by the late onset of rain.

    The TIMB said that the auction season would start on March 20, while contract tobacco sales would start on March 21.

    Sales bookings started yesterday and deliveries will be accepted from March 18.

    Meanwhile, another story in the Herald, this one by Nesia Mhaka and Ellen Chasokela, quoted the TIMB’s corporate communications manager Isheunesu Moyo as saying that three auction floors had been licensed for the 2019 sales season: the Tobacco Sales Floor, Boka Tobacco Auction Floors and Premier Tobacco Auction Floors.

    He said all the licensed floors were ready.

  • Growers say prices too low

    Growers say prices too low

    The Philippines’ National Tobacco Administration (NTA) on Tuesday appealed to tobacco growers in the Ilocos Norte region to sell their tobacco only to licensed traders, according to a story by Leilanie Adriano for the Philippines News Agency.

    The appeal was purportedly made ‘to ensure [a] fair market price’.

    The NTA officer-in-charge, Luzviminda Padayao, said there were at least two NTA-licensed buying stations located in Batac city and Currimao town where growers could offer their tobacco.

    “We have no control over cowboys/traders who are going to villages to buy tobacco leaves,” she said in an interview on Tuesday. “These NTA-licensed buying stations are being monitored through the use of prescribed trading forms such as purchase invoice vouchers (PIVs) and certificate of purchase.”

    But as Padayao was speaking some growers in the province were coming together to appeal to the concerned authorities to increase the price of tobacco this season.

    The current tobacco price ranges from PHP60 to PHP75 per kg, but it was suggested that this should be increased up to PHP128 per kg as a result of the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, which had affected production costs.

    Growers stretching across several regions are currently staging a five-day protest.

  • Concerns over environment

    Concerns over environment

    From the moment its seeds go into the ground to the moment its dried and shredded leaves are set alight by the world’s 1.1 billion smokers, tobacco leaves a trail of untold destruction, according to a story at dw.com.

    Researchers from Imperial College London are said to have found that the industry’s annual carbon footprint is almost twice that of Wales.

    “If we continue to grow tobacco crops to meet the demand, we’ll have huge environmental degradation,” Vinayak Prasad, head of the World Health Organization’s tobacco control program in Geneva was said to have told DW.

    The story said that growing and curing tobacco accounted for more than 75 percent of tobacco’s carbon footprint.

    But it required plenty of land, water and energy; as well as pesticides and fertilizers that polluted nearby rivers and groundwater, and degraded the soil.

    The story conceded that the tobacco industry was a minor offender compared to the big names of global deforestation, such as the palm oil and soybean industries, but it went on to quote Sonja von Eichborn, director of the anti-tobacco non-governmental organization Unfairtobacco, as saying it “has a great impact at the local level, for instance in Tanzania”.

    There, she said, tobacco was responsible for up to six percent of annual deforestation, a figure that looked set to increase.

    In Pakistan, meanwhile, the WHO says plantations [presumably tobacco plantations] already account for almost 27 percent of yearly deforestation.

  • Malawi volume increased

    Malawi volume increased

    A preliminary report by Malawi’s Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) suggests that this year’s tobacco crop volume, at about 206 million kg, is broadly similar to that of last season, 202 million kg, according to a story in The Maravi Post.

    The TCC is due to undertake a second crop survey from February 25 to March 3, and the results of this survey will be used to determine the opening dates for the marketing season.

    Speaking in the capital Lilongwe on Tuesday, TCC CEO Kayisi Sadala attributed this year’s increased tobacco volume to last year’s ‘good marketing season’, though Sadala did not say for whom it was good.

    And it was noticeable that though the 2018 marketing season was described as good, there was no mention of grower prices, which a Reuters piece in October had said were down by 16.5 percent on those of 2017.

    So it would be valid to speculate that the increased volume could be down to a whole range of factors from the weather to poor prices last season having persuaded growers that the only way to increase their incomes was through volumes.

    Last month, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World said that a 2016 study had found that only 25 percent of Malawian tobacco farmers were content with the prices they received in 2014, and that about 41 percent of all tobacco farmers had considered switching to alternative crops or livelihoods.

    And it seems unlikely that grower sentiment would have changed greatly because the Foundation said also that farm-gate prices of tobacco in Malawi had fallen by 54 percent between 2012 and 2016.

    Even given a ‘good marketing season’ in 2017, grower prices are likely to be below those of 2012.

    One factor that would tend to indicate that the 2019 season is unlikely to be a good one for growers is that, according to the story, the volume this season is 35 percent up on the 152 million kg that buyers had demanded.

  • Playing the percentages

    Playing the percentages

    The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association president Rodney Ambrose has dismissed reports that his organization has rejected the 30 percent foreign exchange retention threshold announced by the Central Bank governor John Mangudya during the presentation of his Monetary Policy Statement on Wednesday, according to a Pindula News story.

    An earlier Pindula News report had indicated that the Association’s members had held a meeting on Wednesday night to map the way forward following the position taken by Mangudya.

    The report further claimed that tobacco growers had threatened to withhold their crops.

    Writing to Pindula News on Thursday, Ambrose said that at no time had it been indicated to any reporter that tobacco growers would withhold their crop if the 30 percent figure was not reviewed.

    Also, he said, no meeting of tobacco growers had taken place yet to discuss the matter.

    According an earlier story in The Standard, failure by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to make a commitment about how tobacco growers would be paid during the forthcoming marketing season had caused uncertainty in the industry.

    Industry players had argued that the recent enthusiasm among farmers for growing tobacco was likely to be reduced if payments for tobacco were made in local currency or with a foreign-currency proportion that would not cover the costs of inputs priced in foreign currency.

    Stakeholders in the tobacco industry were said to have met with senior officials at the RBZ to discuss the currency concerns ahead of the presentation of the central bank’s monetary policy statement (MPS), but with no immediate success.

    At that time, the Federation for Farmers’ Union president Charles Chabikwa said his personal view was that tobacco farmers wanted more than 20 percent and, if possible, 100 percent payments in foreign currency.

    Last year, tobacco growers were reportedly paid 50 percent in foreign currency.

  • Industry friction denied

    Industry friction denied

    The CEO of the Tobacco Board of Zambia (TBZ), James Kasongo, has told journalists at a media briefing that the Board ‘has not put any restrictions on the amount of tobacco companies in Zambia or abroad must buy during the 2019 marketing season,’ according to a Zambia National Broadcasting Corp story.

    Kasongo was said also to have ‘dismissed speculations’ that the Tobacco Association of Zambia, Japan Tobacco International and Alliance One had sued the government and the TBZ over ‘the tobacco levy’.

    Last week, a story in The Mast reported that Japan Tobacco International Leaf Zambia and Alliance One Zambia had filed a notice in the Lusaka High Court principal registry seeking leave to start judicial review proceedings over a two percent levy placed on tobacco sales that was allegedly retroactive and illegal.

    The sales in question were said to have been completed before the effective date of the statutory instrument imposing the levy.

    In the Mast’s story, the two firms were said to have been challenging also a decision to issue two statutory instruments which restricted their operations on the tobacco sales floors. That decision they allege went beyond the powers granted under the Tobacco Act.

  • Currency trade winds

    Currency trade winds

    Failure by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to make a commitment about how tobacco growers will be paid during the forthcoming marketing season is causing uncertainty in the industry, according to a story in The Standard.

    Industry players argue that the recent enthusiasm among farmers for growing tobacco is likely to be reduced if payments for tobacco are made in local currency or with a foreign-currency proportion that would not cover the costs of inputs priced in foreign currency.

    Stakeholders in the tobacco industry are said to have met recently with senior officials at the RBZ to discuss the currency concerns ahead of the presentation of the central bank’s monetary policy statement (MPS), but with no immediate success.

    Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (TAZ) CEO Rodney Ambrose confirmed the meeting had taken place and said the industry was now waiting for RBZ governor John Mangudya to present the MPS before deciding on the way forward.

    Previously, the RBZ was said to have suggested that growers should be paid 80 percent of their proceeds in local currency and the rest in US dollars.

    However, TAZ president Guy Mutasa said such an arrangement would be unsustainable as growers needed to use foreign currency to buy equipment.

    Meanwhile, the Federation for Farmers’ Union president Charles Chabikwa said the Union was waiting for the MPS.

    “What I know is that a meeting was convened by the TIMB, tobacco growers’ associations and the central bank, but nothing conclusive came out of it because the monetary policy statement is yet to be presented,” he said.

    “But my personal view is that tobacco farmers want more than 20 percent and, if possible, 100 percent payments in foreign currency.”

    Last year, tobacco growers were reportedly paid 50 percent in foreign currency.

  • Rewarded with lower prices

    Rewarded with lower prices

    The Tobacco Association of Malawi (TAMA) has urged the Government to improve security at the country’s borders to help stop leaf tobacco smuggling, according to a Malawi24 story.

    Speaking at the 2019 TAMA annual meeting, the Association’s president, Kalima Banda, said curbing tobacco smuggling would ensure that Malawian tobacco growers were rewarded for their hard work.

    Banda said that producing tobacco involved a lot of hard work and resources, and that growers needed to be rewarded.

    But growers had to tend their tobacco with care to attract better prices, once this year’s marketing season started.

    Banda advised tobacco growers not to sell their crop to middlemen, saying they should wait for the opening of the auction floors, where they could sell their crop at better prices.

    It will be interesting to see whether the tobacco growers heed Banda’s warnings.

    Last month, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World said that a 2016 study found that only 25 percent of Malawian tobacco farmers were content with the prices they received in 2014, and that about 41 percent of all tobacco farmers had considered switching to alternative crops or livelihoods.

    About 45 percent of all tobacco farmers in Malawi were said by the Foundation to be contract farmers, but no statistically significant differences between independent and contract farmers were found in price satisfaction and desire to switch.

    Crucially, the Foundation, which was focusing initially on Malawi as part of its Agricultural Transformation Initiative, said farm-gate prices of tobacco in Malawi had fallen by 54 percent between 2012 and 2016.

  • Buyers challenge levy

    Buyers challenge levy

    Japan Tobacco International Leaf Zambia and Alliance One Zambia have filed a notice in the Lusaka High Court principal registry seeking leave to start judicial review proceedings over a levy placed on tobacco sales that was allegedly retroactive and illegal, according to a story in The Mast, relayed by the TMA.

    The sales in question were said to have been completed before the effective date of Statutory Instrument No 67.

    The companies want to challenge the decision of the Tobacco Board of Zambia (TBZ) to collect the tobacco levy from them.

    They are seeking to ask the court to rule that a minister’s decision to demand the two percent levy from them on completed purchases retroactively was illegal.

    The applicants argue that the minister cannot demand payments of the levy for purchases that were made prior to August 31, 2018.

    The two firms are challenging too the minister’s decision to issue SI 84 and 85 of 2018 which restrict their operating tobacco sales floors. That decision they allege went beyond the powers granted under the Tobacco Act.

    The companies are asking for an order prohibiting the minister from implementing or enforcing SI 84 and 85.

  • Tobacco a hospital crop

    Tobacco a hospital crop

    The Civil Surgeon of Bangladesh’s Nilphamari district, Ranjit Kumar Barman, has said that he will take action against the ‘unlawful’ tobacco farming taking place on land belonging to a leprosy hospital, according to a story by EAM Asaduzzaman for The Daily Star.

    According to the story, the tobacco was being grown on a ‘large chunk’ of land that is ‘right around the corner’ from the 20-bed hospital compound located in Notkhana village, Nilphamari Sadar upazila (sub-district).

    Asaduzzaman said that the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) had seemed to be oblivious to the fact that tobacco was being grown on the land of a hospital owned and operated by the DGHS.

    And asked whether the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) could play a role in stopping tobacco farming, DAE deputy director Abul Kashem Azad said it observed World Tobacco-free Day on May 31 every year to create awareness of the harm tobacco caused to human health and the environment.

    When asked why the hospital authorities were allowing the tobacco farm on its property, Dr. Khorshed Alam, a consultant at the hospital, said he did not have any authority over the matter and that the civil surgeon’s office had been notified of it.

    However, Barman said that before being alerted by Asaduzzaman he had been unaware of the tobacco farming taking place at the government-run Leprosy Hospital in Nilphamari.