Category: Leaf

  • PM visits tobacco growers

    PM visits tobacco growers

    Following a visit to tobacco leaf-buying areas in Krivogastani and Prilep, the Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said he expected increased demand and higher prices for domestic leaf, according to a story MIA Daily News story relayed by the TMA.

    The Greek tobacco company Missirian was expected to sign contracts with farmers in Prilep in March 2018.

    Zaev said tobacco growers’ returns had risen to MKD 269 per kg (US$5.16 per kg), which included an average price of MKD209.50 per kg (US$4.02 per kg) and a subsidy of MKD60 per kg (US$1.15 per kg).

    There was no mention of previous price levels or by how much prices had risen.

  • Decentralizing sales

    Decentralizing sales

    Zimbabwe’s tobacco auction companies have been given the green light to decentralize their operations during the next marketing season, which is due to start in March, according to a story in The Herald.

    The move is expected to reduce the costs incurred by farmers in transporting their tobacco to the market.

    The Tobacco and Industry Marketing Board’s chief executive Andrew Matibiri reportedly told The Herald that all three auction floors – Boka Tobacco Floors, Tobacco Sales Floor (TSF) and Premier – had been granted licenses to set up tobacco auction facilities outside Harare.

    “Boka will operate from Rusape, TSF from Karoi and Premier from Mvurwi,” said Dr Matibiri.

    With the volume of tobacco being sold by auction having been falling, concerns have been raised about whether it was feasible for auction floors to set up facilities outside Harare.

    In the most recent flue-cured tobacco season, Zimbabwe produced about 180 million kg, of which 20 percent was sold by auction.

    The Federation of Farmers’ Union (FoFU) welcomed the move, but urged the authorities to ensure there would be enough buyers at the new buying centers.

    “This is good for the convenience of the farmer and it will reduce congestion at existing auction centers but we would want to see all buyers represented at the new centers to increase competition,” FoFU chairman Wonder Chabikwa said in an interview.

    The Herald report said that Zimbabwe’s tobacco auction system used to be the marketing model of tobacco in the world, but that auction-tobacco volumes had shrunk as farmers, mostly those who benefited under the land reform program, had joined contract schemes because they did not have money to finance production.

  • Taxes on taxes on taxes…

    Taxes on taxes on taxes…

    Tobacco farmers and laborers in the Philippines yesterday appealed to a bicameral panel looking into tax reform to consider their plight before further increasing tobacco excise tax, according to a story in The Philippine Star.

    Past and ongoing tobacco-tax increases have been blamed for a fall in tobacco production, which, according to the National Tobacco Administration (NTA), went from 68 million kg in 2013 to 52 million kg in 2015.

    The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), the PhilTobacco Growers Association, and the Federation of Free Farmers expressed their opposition to a further rise in tobacco excise tax, citing the significant reduction in production and huge job losses following the yearly ‘exorbitant’ hikes in tobacco tax since 2013.

    Under the current law, tobacco taxes automatically increase by four percent annually.

    “What the proponents of a radical increase in sin tax fail to recognize is that every time a move to increase the tobacco sin tax is proposed, thousands of tobacco farmers and laborers are faced with the threat of losing their primary source of income and livelihood,” said TUCP president Ruben Torres, a former labor and executive secretary.

    Torres said that data from the NTA had shown that the number of workers in the tobacco industry had been reduced by 9,232 farmers in 2015 alone.

    Another related NTA report had shown there was also a decline in the area of the land planted to tobacco from 38,264 ha in 2014 to 32,761 ha in 2015.

    He said that the tobacco industry had already contributed greatly to the national coffers. Despite the tobacco farmers’ contribution to the national income, it was unfortunate that this sector was always targeted as the sole ‘big’ source of national revenues for the government.

  • Sweet offer to leaf growers

    Sweet offer to leaf growers

    PureCircle says it is undertaking a new stevia farming program in the US that will provide economic opportunities for tobacco farmers looking for a sustainable crop that is in high demand by the global food and beverage industry.

    In a press note issued through PRNewswire, the company, which describes itself as ‘the world’s leading producer and innovator of great-tasting stevia sweeteners for the global beverage and food industries’, said that, in the fall, it had partnered with North Carolina farmers to plant and harvest StarLeaf™ stevia in small trial plots. These trials had been successful and PureCircle and its partner-farmers would increase ‘significantly’ commercial production of StarLeaf™ stevia for the next planting season.

    ‘PureCircle’s StarLeaf™ is a variety of the stevia plant that contains rich amounts of the most sugar-like tasting, zero-calorie stevia sweeteners,’ the company said its press note. ‘The project in North Carolina is part of PureCircle’s global program to scale up StarLeaf™ production, while also providing domestically-grown stevia to the North American market.

    ‘The trials this fall confirmed stevia grows well in soil and climate conditions that were conducive to growing tobacco.  With the declining demand for tobacco, stevia cultivation offers farmers in North Carolina the opportunity to increase returns and productivity of their acreage.

    ‘Stevia is becoming the preferred zero-calorie sweetener among consumers and consumer product companies. The percentage of beverage and food products launched containing stevia increased by 13 percent in Q2 2017 compared to Q2 2016.  StarLeaf™ stevia will help companies accelerate launches of reduced- and zero-calorie products by making available sweeteners with the most sugar-like taste derived from a plant-based source.’

    “We are proud to introduce stevia as a crop in North Carolina,” James Foxton, vice president of agricultural operations at PureCircle, was quoted as saying.

    “This program will boost the economic prospects of agriculture in that state by providing a viable alternative to tobacco.

    “We look forward to working together with farmers in expanding stevia production and establishing a North American stevia supply chain for PureCircle.”

  • Grower registrations up

    Grower registrations up

    The number of farmers in Zimbabwe who have registered to grow flue-cured tobacco during the 2017/18 season has increased by more than 36 percent on the number who registered for the previous season, according to a story in The Herald.

    More than 100,000 farmers have registered to grow tobacco during the 2017/18 farming season, up from 73,492 in the previous season.

    And registrations are still in progress.

    This sharp increase has occurred even though farmer flue-cured prices fell by almost 20 percent between 2013 and 2016, from US$3.67 per kg to US$2.95 per kg.

    Figures from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) show that 25,852 farmers have registered to grow tobacco for the first time during the 2017/18 season, which compares with the 13,842 farmers who registered the previous season to grow tobacco for the first time.

  • Azerbaijan to up production

    Azerbaijan to up production

    Tabaterra CJSC, which started up in Azerbaijan on September 11, is expected to produce seven billion cigarettes a year, according to an AzerNews story.

    Tabaterra’s plant, on the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park (SCIP), is slated to employ 200 people and to manufacture three types of tobacco products.

    AzerNews reported that 1.6 billion of the 10 billion cigarettes consumed each year in Azerbaijan by the 47 percent of the population that smokes were manufactured in the country, and that the bill for importing the rest was US$150 million annually.

    Given this situation, Azerbaijan had decided to increase tobacco production.

    The government was aiming to increase the area dedicated to growing leaf tobacco from 3,200 ha to 6,000 ha, and to increase cigarette production by raising the capacity of existing cigarette factories and establishing new ones.

    These initiatives were expected to increase Azerbaijan’s cigarette production capacity from 16-17 percent of domestic consumption to 70 percent.

    The SCIP was established by presidential decree in December 2011 with the aim of accelerating economic development in Azerbaijan and increasing its competitiveness with other countries.

    Companies operating from within the SCIP are exempted from property, land, and corporate income taxes, and from VAT on imported equipment.

  • Russia goes for DIY tobacco

    Russia goes for DIY tobacco

    Russia’s economy started growing this year after two years of recession, but many people aren’t feeling any richer yet and this is something that is reflected in the cigarettes they are smoking, according to a qz.com story.

    Apparently, some smokers have turned to smoking cigarettes made with home-grown tobacco; so that while official figures indicate that smoking in Russia fell by about 20 percent between 2013 and 2016, the reality is probably somewhat different.

    Russians’ real disposable income fell for the fourth month in a row in October – a 1.3 percent drop from that of the same month of last year.

    In September, real wages were 13 percent lower than they were in 2014, when, according to Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, the recession started.

    Meanwhile, tobacco tax hikes have caused cigarette prices to nearly double since 2013 – a challenge to one of Europe’s heaviest-smoking populations.

    Hence the interest in growing tobacco at home.

    “Several governors have told me that last year people started planting tobacco in their dachas and gardens,” Sergei Ryabukhin, the head of the Russian Senate’s budget and finance committee said last week.

    “When you go to a region, you realize with horror that people have turned to growing tobacco or shag. According to official statistics [tobacco production] has fallen 21 percent and people are smoking less. But in reality it’s not like that.”

  • Farmers lose out

    Farmers lose out

    In Tanzania, ‘excess tobacco’ is rotting as the government and potential buyers haggle over what price it should fetch, according to a story in The Citizen relayed by the TMA.

    The tobacco was grown by members of the Amahoro Tobacco Primary Co-operative Society at Ulyankulu in the Tabora Region.

    In negotiations that are said to have dragged on, the potential buyers have offered to pay $1.35 per kg, while the government believes it is worth $1.75 per kg.

    But nature might resolve the issue.

    The chairman of the co-operative, Fulgence Erasto, said that, with ongoing rain, the tobacco had started accumulating moisture and rotting.

    “Look, this tobacco is no longer suitable for the market,” he said.

    “This is a loss to the farmers.”

  • HNB in wider distribution

    HNB in wider distribution

    US-based Vapor Tobacco Manufacturing (VTM) says that Tobacco Superstores, one of the largest tobacco store chains in the US, and Tobacco Town are offering its ‘3T® organic-technology heat-not-burn products’ in all their Arkansas stores.

    In a press note issued yesterday, VTM said that 3T® Organic was the first and only HNB product available on the US market.

    ‘Customer feedback shows that 3T® Organic heat-not-burn devices are user-friendly, durable, economical, and have a “real” cigarette taste,’ VTM said in its note.

    ‘This is due to the Vapor Tobacco Manufacturing’s 3T® Organic heat-not-burn device which uses their patented liquefied tobacco from organic tobacco leaves, which is heated not burned, unlocking the rich, true tobacco flavor that is loved.’

    3T® Organic Rechargeable was described as the only electronic nicotine delivery system that used USDA-certified organic ingredients.

  • Still working with farmers

    Still working with farmers

    British American Tobacco says that its commitment to working to enable prosperous livelihoods for all farmers who supply its leaf tobacco is the focus of its latest report: Sustainable Agriculture and Farmer Livelihoods.

    ‘This new report provides an overview of how BAT invests over £60 million each year in advancing sustainable agriculture, through its global leaf research and development, and supporting farmers through a network of expert field technicians,’ BAT said in a note posted on its website today.

    ‘It also shows how the group is managing and monitoring supply chain risks and opportunities through global programs; and how it is working in multi-stakeholder partnerships, including the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing (ECLT) Foundation, to solve complex problems and long-term issues in farming communities.’

    Chief executive Nicandro Durante was quoted as saying that BAT had been working in partnership with tobacco farmers for more than a century. “Over that time, we’ve evolved our approach to take advantage of new opportunities, focused on creating value for the future of our business and the farmers we work with,” he said.

    “We understand that there are many challenges facing agriculture and rural communities, so our work also includes multi-stakeholder projects that aim to enhance livelihoods, protect human rights and lessen the environmental impacts of agriculture.”

    The press note then went on to say that leaf tobacco remained at the core of BAT’s products, so the farmers who grew it were at the heart of its supply chain.

    ‘British American Tobacco sources tobacco leaf from 350,000+ farmers in 34 countries, which includes 90,000+ directly contracted by BAT leaf operations and 260,000+ contracted by our third-party suppliers,’ the press note said.

    ‘This report provides an in-depth look at how BAT is implementing its sustainable agriculture objectives to ensure the continued success and long-term security of our business and, crucially, to fulfilling our role in wider society to support farmers and their communities, now and in the future.’

    The press note said that highlights of the report included:

    • ‘A viewpoint from Alan Davy, BAT’s group operations director, in which he responds to challenging questions and explains why supporting sustainable agriculture remains such a priority.
    • ‘An independent stakeholder viewpoint from Professor Dr. Heiko Hosomi Spitzeck, director of the Center for Sustainability at Fundação Dom Cabral, Brazil, which has been recognised as the best business school in Latin America for 11 consecutive years by the Financial Times.
    • ‘Information on BAT’s Global Leaf R&D which develops improved seed varieties to increase farmers’ yields by up to 20 percent, as well as new and innovative sustainable farming technologies, such as drip irrigation which increases water efficiency by up to 90 percent.
    • ‘Details of BAT’s global Thrive program which takes a holistic and collaborative approach to identifying and addressing long-term challenges that have an impact on the livelihoods of farming communities and the sustainability of agriculture.
    • ‘Since 2011, through the work of the industry’s ECLT Foundation, 162,000 children have been removed or kept away from child labour and 455,000 community members have been reached through awareness-raising activities.
    • ‘The company’s Florece child labour prevention program in Mexico, in partnership with the government and other local stakeholders, which has helped 14,400 children since 2001.
    • ‘100 years of supporting farmers in Brazil and UN recognition for the company’s program to inspire a new generation of Brazilian farmers.
    • ‘75,000 beneficiaries in 19,000 rural families who have been empowered through the Sustainable Agriculture Development Programme in Sri Lanka.
    • ’75 million trees planted through a long-standing afforestation program in Pakistan, and 78,000 Pakistanis in rural communities treated for free each year by Mobile Doctor Units.
    • ‘The results of an independent impact measurement study of the company’s community programs in Bangladesh, which found that its water filtration units have reduced the number of people suffering from waterborne diseases, from 32 percent down to 0.3 percent.’

    The report is at: www.bat.com/sustainabilityfocus.