Zimbabwe’s Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) has suspended the operations of flue-cured-tobacco buyers accused of giving growers a raw deal, according to a story in The Daily News.
This follows complaints by growers who say they are being short-changed by some of the buyers.
TIMB spokesperson Isheunesu Moyo has acknowledged receipt of the complaints from the growers. “We have since stopped some firms’ operations … while investigations are being carried out pertaining to the complaints,” Moyo said.
The affected growers claim that some buyers are making unexplained deductions from their payments while others are failing to pay them at all, despite the growers having delivered their tobacco.
Takura Mukomberanwa of Hurungwe West was said to have told the Daily News that growers were calling on the TIMB to look into a “litany of malpractices such as unauthorized insurance deductions”.
Mukomberanwa said that as things stood, it seemed that the TIMB did not care about what growers were going through.
What was happening was defeating the whole purpose of having taken up tobacco growing and suggesting that growers should quit tobacco.
“The amount they are taking from us is just too much and we end up left with virtually nothing, and it does not make economic sense anymore,” he said.
The Daily News said that the complaints about buyers had arisen at a time when the situation at the country’s flue-cured-tobacco auction floors was dire. Many growers were having to spend ‘successive nights at the floors before getting paid for their deliveries.
In addition, during the past few weeks, growers had been unable to withdraw the $300 per day promised by those responsible for such matters.
And this ‘withdrawals crisis’, the paper said, had seen illicit cash dealers relocating from the Central Business District to the auction floors where they targeted desperate growers.
Category: People
Growers exploited
Shisha popular with young
Shisha has become part of Zimbabwe’s popular culture with young people smoking it at many of the country’s trendier clubs and bars, according to a story in The Zimbabwe Daily.
Establishments such as Bulawayo’s Backroom Shisha Lounge and Vintage Shisha Bar draw scores of young people on weekends and week nights.
For about US$10, a hookah can be hired and shared among friends, while those who prefer their own have to pay between US$60 and US$200 depending on the size, brand and sophistication of the package.
The Daily’s story said that many people who did not smoke cigarettes had hopped onto the shisha bandwagon, assuming that the latter was a less-risky habit than was the former.
But shisha was not less risky, the Daily warned. It came with health risks associated with exposure to toxic chemicals and infectious diseases, such as oral herpes, tuberculosis, hepatitis and influenza, from sharing pipes.
“People who are sharing shisha pipes are at risk because they are exposed to droplet transmissions and other infections that spread through saliva,” the family health director at the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr. Bernard Madzima, was quoted as saying during an interview with the Sunday Mail.
Madzima added that because the pipes were being used by many people; there was a need to sterilize them.
Meanwhile, the Daily said that shisha users were at risk also from the same problems that affected cigarette smokers: heart disease, cancer, respiratory diseases and problems during pregnancy.
Despite the fact that most containers of shisha tobacco carried warnings about how smoking damaged the lungs and how it could harm those nearby, some establishments, which did not allow cigarette smoking indoors, allowed shisha smoking indoors.
Lovemore Mukuring of the Cancer Society of Zimbabwe was quoted as saying that as long as tobacco was involved, there were bound to be serious health implications.
“It should be noted that lung cancer cases that are related to tobacco smoking are on the rise so there is a strong need to advocate for the reduction of smoking,” said Mukuring.Time to take the initiative
The US-based National Tobacco Reform Initiative (NTRI) believes that misperceptions that nicotine is the harmful part of tobacco comprise one of the biggest barriers to encouraging adult smokers to switch to nicotine products that are not burnt.
In a press note issued yesterday, the NTRI said that nicotine did not cause cancer while, in small doses, might contribute minimally to cardio-vascular disease. In contrast, cigarette smoke contained 7,000+ chemicals, including carbon monoxide and 69 known carcinogens, and caused almost half a million premature deaths among US citizens every year.
‘The steady drum beat of fear and panic about nicotine containing e-cigarettes from public health and medical authorities calling for strong action to stem an imagined epidemic of nicotine addiction plaguing our youth, leaves many adult smokers confused while they continue to smoke,’ the note said. ‘A balance must be found between protecting our young people, and helping smokers end their use of a deadly burning tobacco product by switching to substantially safer alternatives, if they cannot or do not want to quit using nicotine altogether.’
The NTRI (http://www.tobaccoreform.org) is led by a team of independent senior tobacco control experts committed to facilitate open and evidence-based discussions about the most effective ways to reduce the prevalence of adult smokers to 10 percent by the year 2024, an interagency-approved goal, and to five percent or lower by 2030.
According to David Abrams, Ph.D. of the NYU College of Global Health and former director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Science (OBSSR) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, the NTRI believes that its fundamental health goal is to eliminate the number-one, totally-preventable cause of death in the US, cigarette smoking, and that the evidence shows that e-cigarettes can help smokers to quit or switch.
“While nicotine is not harmless, it is urgent and critical the public, especially smokers, be better informed about the substantial reductions in total health risks that arise from smoking compared to vaping e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and other nicotine-containing harm-reduction products such as FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) like patches, gum and lozenges,” Abrams said
Meanwhile, NTRI member, Scott Ballin, health policy consultant, former vice president and legislative counsel to the American Heart Association, who has spent 40 years working on tobacco-related policy issues, said that innovative new products demanded that all stakeholders should work together to provide the public with truthful and accurate information about the substantially different risks of combusted and non-combusted nicotine-containing products.
“Governmental agencies, such as the FDA and CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], national tobacco control organizations and healthcare professionals have ethical responsibilities to do so loudly and often,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that the real losers are the millions of addicted smokers who do not perceive much difference in health risk between smokeless tobacco, e-cigarettes, nicotine medications and cigarettes.”Modest price increase
The prices paid so far this season to Zimbabwe growers for flue-cured tobacco is up by 3.3 percent on that of the previous season, according to a story in The NewsDay.
The newspaper reported that Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) figures indicated that the average price of US$2.81 per kg as of last week was up by US$0.09 per kg on that of the same period of the 2017 selling season, US$2.72 per kg.
The president of the Federation of Farmers Union, Wonder Chabikwa, said the price increase was due to buyers fearing that production was down this season.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, Rodney Ambrose, said the rate at which the seasonal average was improving had slowed down due to daily prices being slightly below those of 2017.
“As volumes increase and better quality of tobacco comes onto the market, we hope the seasonal average will remain above 2017, whereas in previous seasons the average prices paid to farmers have been on a downward trend against increased costs,” Ambrose was quoted as saying.
He said the worldwide supply of tobacco remained relatively static, while demand continued to decline. But the quality of tobacco on offer in Zimbabwe was better than that of last season, and this should drive the market to pay more.
“Consideration should also be made in the case of Zimbabwe [of] the difference between the international US$ price paid for tobacco and the high local dollar costs,” Ambrose said, before adding that the industry appreciated the 12.5 percent Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) export incentive that would partially assist with the absorption of increased local costs.
“Our appeal to the RBZ remains – allow tobacco farmers direct access to US$ facilities,” Ambrose said. “Any form of additional funding made to support tobacco farming should be channeled towards improving the viability of farmers rather than targeting increased growers, hectares and volumes.”Auctions to boost exports
Vietnam is due to start auctioning quality smuggled foreign cigarettes on a trial basis starting on June 18, according to a Xinhua News Agency story.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade reportedly said yesterday that, under a prime ministerial decision, the cigarettes would be sold for export, but only to countries that did not border Vietnam.
Revenues earned from the auctions are to be used to help combat cigarette smuggling.
According to the Vietnam Tobacco Association, nearly one billion packs of smuggled cigarettes are smoked in Vietnam each year, causing ‘losses’ of about US$450 million to the state’s budget.
A recent survey by the country’s Health Ministry showed that Vietnam has 15.6 million smokers aged over 15, 85.3 percent of whom smoke daily.
They spend about 31 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly US$1.4 billion) on their habit annually.One appointment today
Alliance One International said yesterday that Bryan Mazur had joined the company as executive vice president, global specialty products.
Prior to joining AOI, Mazur served as vice president and general manager of Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, where he built and scaled multiple consumer-facing product brands over the course of 20 years.
In his new role, Mazur will be responsible for global business development and driving innovation and growth.
‘AOI recently announced investments in compelling market opportunities in the e-liquids, industrial hemp and legal Canadian cannabis industries as part of its “One Tomorrow” transformation initiative,’ the company said in a note posted on its website.
‘Announced in February 2018, the objective of the One Tomorrow initiative is to drive future growth opportunities and reshape the AOI brand as the trusted provider of responsibly produced, independently verified, sustainable, and traceable agricultural products and services.
‘The recent investments in the new business lines build upon the strength of AOI’s core operations, institutional knowledge, operational expertise and corporate values.’
Pieter Sikkel (pictured), AOI’s president and CEO, said Mazur came to AOI with an extensive background in consumer-facing products that would be a strong asset for the company as it moved forward with its One Tomorrow transformation initiative.
“His experience in leveraging the history and knowledge of an existing company to launch and scale new brands is an excellent fit for the needs of our evolving business. We are excited that Bryan has decided to join our team.”Illegal trade rising
A ‘significant percentage of Australian smokers’ are consuming illicit cigarettes, according to a Xinhua News Agency story based on a report published yesterday.
The KPMG study showed that while tobacco consumption fell by 6.1 percent between 2016 and 2017, the share of illicit tobacco rose to 15 percent – to 1,248 tons.
In 2009, the story said, illicit tobacco accounted for nine percent of overall consumption.
The consumption of illicit cigarettes was said to be ‘costing’ the federal government up to A$2 billion (US$1.49 billion) in ‘lost’ tax revenue.
But Australia’s excise on cigarettes is expected to raise A$15.6 billion by 2021, up from A$11.2 billion in 2017-18 as excise increases come into effect.
The excise on tobacco was raised by 25 percent in 2010 with eight further 12.5 percent increases legislated to take place between 2013 and 2020. It is currently equivalent to 75 percent of the price of a pack of cigarettes.
Illicit cigarettes are about 40 percent cheaper than are licit cigarettes, while loose-leaf tobacco is 70-80 percent cheaper.Youngsters smoking less
Smoking among Ireland’s 15-16 age group fell from 41 percent (45 percent of females and 37 percent of males) in 1995, to 13 percent (12.8 percent and 13.1 percent) in 2015, according to a story in the Irish Examiner, relayed by the TMA and citing a new study published in BMJ Open.
Factors that affected smoking were said to include having friends who smoked, parental involvement, easy access to cigarettes, skipping school, relationships with mothers and the perception of the risks of smoking.
“The results of this study suggest that smoking in this age group can achieve the Tobacco Free Ireland strategy of less than five percent prevalence by 2025 – if tobacco control measures continue to be enforced and strengthened,” said Professor Luke Clancy, director of the Tobacco Free Research Institute Ireland.Industry meddled in UNICEF
The authors of a new report have recommended that UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) should restore its 2001 policy of not working with the tobacco industry or its agents, in line with the policies followed by sister UN agencies, according to a story by Elizabeth Fernandez published on the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) website.
UNICEF, which is a 70-year-old organization active in about 190 countries, focuses on the rights of children worldwide.
The UCSF report was published in the April 30 issue of Pediatrics, the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
According to previously-secret documents uncovered by UCSF researchers, the tobacco industry manipulated the UNICEF from 2003 until at least 2016, during which time the agency’s focus on children’s rights to a tobacco-free life was reduced.
“UNICEF allowed itself to be manipulated by the tobacco industry,” author Stella A. Bialous, DrPH, RN, an associate professor in the UCSF School of Nursing and long-time tobacco control expert whose research focuses on the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, was quoted as saying.
“After UNICEF loosened its guidelines on funding from the tobacco industry in 2003, it opened the door for the tobacco industry to form partnerships that appeared to undermine its involvement in tobacco control.
“The tobacco industry is expert at bamboozling people and UNICEF was vulnerable to it,” added Bialous, who is also with the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.
The researchers used documents from the Truth Tobacco Documents library, an online collection housed at UCSF of previously-secret tobacco-industry documents produced mainly through litigation against tobacco companies.
Additional information was garnered online, from UNICEF’s and tobacco industry websites.
Fernandez’s story is at: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2018/04/410301/unicef-muted-tobacco-control-children.Youngsters targeted
The US Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have issued 13 warning letters to manufacturers, distributors and retailers about selling e-liquids in packaging likely to appeal to young people.
In a note issued through the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, the agencies said that they were targeting those involved in e-liquids used in e-cigarettes with labeling and/or advertising that caused them to resemble ‘kid-friendly food products, such as juice boxes, candy or cookies, some of them with cartoon-like imagery’.
Several of the companies that received warning letters were also cited for selling such products to minors.
“No child should be using any tobacco product, and no tobacco products should be marketed in a way that endangers kids – especially by using imagery that misleads them into thinking the products are things they’d eat or drink,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D, as part of the note.
“Looking at these side-to-side comparisons is alarming. It is easy to see how a child could confuse these e-liquid products for something they believe they’ve consumed before – like a juice box.
“These are preventable accidents that have the potential to result in serious harm or even death. “Companies selling these products have a responsibility to ensure they aren’t putting children in harm’s way or enticing youth use, and we’ll continue to take action against those who sell tobacco products to youth and market products in this egregious fashion.”
