Category: Sustainability

Leaf production down
Tobacco output in the Philippines this year may not reach 50,000 tonnes because a decline in the demand for cigarettes caused growers to reduce their plantings, according to a Business Mirror story quoting the National Tobacco Administration (NTA).
The country reportedly produced 56,456.73 tonnes last year
But there were other reasons for the decline. The NTA Administrator Robert L. Seares said the shutdown of Mighty Corp., which used to buy about 6.5 million kg of low-grade tobacco, had also contributed to the decline in tobacco production this year. The tobacco interests of Mighty Corp. have since been acquired by Japan Tobacco.
And Mario E. Cabasal, president of the National Federation of Tobacco Farmers, Associations and Co-operatives, said the grading practices of some companies had discouraged farmers from planting tobacco.
“We do have floor prices [official minimum prices] for tobacco produce but grading them is a different matter,” he was quoted as saying. “Graders tend to downgrade the quality of the produce to buy it at a lower price.”
Cabasal said the floor price for tobacco of the highest grade, or ‘AA’ tobacco, was P81 per kg. “Most farmers get only ‘A’, which carries a lower price,” he said. “This prompts them to stop planting or to reduce the area devoted to tobacco.”
NTA figures indicate that the number of tobacco farmers declined to 43,625 last year from 46,531 in 2015, while the ‘tobacco harvest area’ fell by six percent to 30,648 ha.
September 7, 2017
Growers told to up quality
Tobacco farmers in the northern part of Luzon, the Philippines, are being encouraged to improve the quality of their produce to ensure they earn higher incomes, according to a Philippine News Agency story of September 6.
This is even though the president of the National Association of Tobacco Farmers, Associations and Co-operatives Mario Cabasal was quoted on the same day in the Business Mirror as saying that graders tended to downgrade the quality of the tobacco to buy it at a lower price (see story Leaf production down).
Growers, cigarette manufacturers, and tobacco dealers and exporters have been meeting to negotiate the floor prices for growers’ tobacco.
The floor price is said to be the minimum price allowed by the government. It is said to be based on the prevailing market conditions, such as production costs, a ‘reasonable’ margin of profit for stakeholders, and growing conditions.
The news agency story said the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) was pushing for a contract growing scheme to ensure a fair tobacco market.
And it said Cabasal hoped to arrive at a fair market price.
September 7, 2017
Growing pollution in China
China is expected to expand its use of environment-damaging plastic film to boost crop production, according to a Bloomberg News story.
The film traps moisture and heat, and helps control weeds and pests. It reduces water demand by 20-30 percent and it enables crops to be grown in both drier and colder environments.
It is used as a mulch over 12 percent of China’s farmland and on 93 percent of the country’s tobacco fields.
Overall, about 1.45 million metric tons of polyethylene are spread in sheets across 20 million ha (49 million acres) — an area about half the size of California — of farmland in China.
And use of the translucent material might exceed two million tons by 2024 and cover 22 million ha, according to Yan Changrong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing.
The downside is that polypropylene film is not biodegradable and often not recycled.
Potentially cancer-causing toxins that can be released into the soil from the plastic residue are said to be present at levels of 60-300 kg per ha in some provinces.
While polyethylene contamination occurs worldwide, the threat is especially acute in China, where about a fifth of arable land contained levels of toxins exceeding national standards, according to 2014 government estimates.
The Bloomberg story is at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-05/plastic-film-covering-12-of-china-s-farmland-contaminates-soil.
September 6, 2017
Zimbabwe prices flat
The average price paid to Zimbabwe’s growers this season for their flue-cured tobacco, at US$2.96 per kg, is the same as was paid last season, according to a Zimbabwe Herald story.
Growers this season were paid US$557.1 million for 188.0 million kg of tobacco, while last season they were paid US$595.9 million for 202.2 million kg.
The Herald story seemed to suggest that the leaf tobacco sales season was still in progress, describing how tobacco farmers had ‘so far grossed…’. It said also that flue-cured tobacco production was ‘likely to miss its projected target of 205 million kg’.
An earlier story had it that a clean-up sale was to be held on August 11. But a New Zimbabwe story in the middle of August had it that sales had totaled 185.6 million kg; so clearly 2.4 million kg of sales had taken place between the New Zimbabwe and the Herald reports.
The lower crop this season came about even though the number of new growers was said to have increased by 103 percent, seed sales were said to have gone up by 331 percent and, according to the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union, the area planted to tobacco had been increased.
September 5, 2017
Smoking costs unaffordable
China will be unable to bear the economic and social costs of tobacco smoking if it doesn’t speed up its tobacco-control efforts, according to a story by Sun Wenyu for the People’s Daily Online.
A recent report issued jointly by 37 organizations, including the Chinese Preventative Medicine Association and the Chinese Association of Tobacco Control, said that China’s tobacco consumption accounted for 44 percent of worldwide consumption.
China had added 15 million new smokers in five years and the country needed urgently to step up its efforts to control tobacco.
The results of a nationwide adult tobacco survey that was published in 2015 indicated that 27.7 percent of Chinese people above the age of 15 were smokers. It indicated, too, that the total number of smokers in the country had reached 315 million.
According to the ‘Healthy China 2030’ blueprint issued by the State Council, China aims to lower the proportion of smokers to 20 percent by 2030.
The story said that ‘experts’ believed that tobacco consumption had become a global issue that threatened public health and led to serious consequences. Smoking caused major chronic non-infectious diseases, and these diseases accounted for 85 percent of the total deaths in China.
Though progress had been made, China had a long way to go before it could reach the goals set in the Healthy China 2030 blueprint.
It would be unaffordable for the country to pay for the economic and social losses if it didn’t speed up the process of tobacco control.
The story said that experts had called on the country to pass legislation ‘to establish a smoke-free country and comprehensively ban public smoking’.
‘In addition, the experts believe that China should reduce tobacco advertisements, increase tobacco tax, and make smoking cessation a basic public health service,’ the story said.
August 31, 2017
The die is cast
Tobacco growers in the US states of Kentucky and Tennessee are being encouraged to switch to producing indigo as a ‘viable economic alternative’ to tobacco, according to a Forbes story relayed by the TMA.
In an interview, Sarah Bellos, founder of the bio-based dye start-up company, Stony Creek Colors, told Forbes that US tobacco growers were losing contracts due to the declines in smoking prevalence.
Bellos said that her company contracted the growers at the beginning of the season with what looked like a tobacco contract.
But Stony Creek Colors took more of the weather-related risk. “We pay them on a per-acre basis versus paying per ton,” she said. “A farmer doesn’t have a good way of projecting crop yields until after several years. We will move towards performance-based pay over time.”
Bellos added that harvesting tobacco was very labor intensive and by switching to indigo, growers “could benefit from a sustainable crop that doesn’t require nitrogen and can attract beneficial insects”.
August 31, 2017
Malawi average ‘good’
Malawi’s 2017 leaf-tobacco grower-prices have been described as ‘good’ by the Tobacco Control Commission’s (TCC) CEO David Luka, according to a story by Grace Phiri for The Nation.
“This season has run smoothly with no market interruptions as well as low rejection rates averaging between 10 and 20 percent,” Luka was quoted as saying.
“Again, prices were good this season as on average the leaf fetched $2.00 (K1,466) per kg against last year’s $1.50 (K1,099) per kg,” he said.
However, while this year’s average price might have been up on that of last season, which was poor; there seems to be a question mark over what were the prices in 2017 and 2016. The story seems to give the grower revenue for 2017 as US$212 earned from the sale of 124 million kg, which would suggest an average price of US$1.71 per kg. And the 2016 revenue on the sale of 194 million kg is given as US$275 million, which suggests an average price of US$1.42 per kg.
The average price of US$2.00 per kg cannot be explained as being the average price for one of the tobacco types because the story gave the various averages as: US$1.36 for dark fired tobacco, US$1.80 for Burley, and US$2.92 for flue-cured.
Even at US$2.00 per kg, the average price was down on that of 2013, for instance, when it stood at US$2.11 per kg, according to an APA News Agency story.
August 23, 2017
Tobacco takes toll in Kenya
Tobacco use is now the top cause of preventable death in Kenya and one of the four biggest factors contributing to the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), according to a Bernama News Agency report quoting the Principal Secretary (Assistant Minister) for Health, Julius Korir.
More than half of hospital admissions in Kenya are said to be related to NCDs and, on average, 80 per cent of premature deaths are related to the use of or exposure to tobacco.
Such a toll was said to be putting a strain on Kenya’s efforts to achieve its development goals, said Korir in a speech read out by the senior deputy director of Medical Services, Dr. Patrick Amoth.
“These diseases are not only burdening the health system but also resulting in high productivity costs to the economy,” said Korir, who added that the tobacco epidemic could not be ignored any longer.
The story cited the 2015 STEPwise Survey for NCD risk factors as having revealed that 13 percent of Kenya’s adults used tobacco products and that 20 percent of Kenyans were exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke at home.
The Global Youth Tobacco Survey of 2013 was cited also and was said to have shown that 10 percent of Kenyans aged 13-15 years were regular consumers of tobacco products.
Meanwhile, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey of 2014 was said to have revealed that half of the country’s current smokers had attempted to quit smoking in the previous 12 months. “This demonstrates a need to avail cessation services to Kenyans,” said Korir. “Tobacco cessation interventions offered by the health care systems are more effective than individual based interventions.”
August 18, 2017
Zimbabwe’s sales close
Zimbabwe’s flue-cured-tobacco sales-season has ended with grower prices on about US$2.97 per kg, according to a story in The New Zimbabwe.
The average price was up by about US$0.03 per kg, or one percent, on that of both 2015 and 2016, US$2.94 per kg.
But it was down significantly on the 2008 average price of US$3.24 per kg.
Volume sales this season, at 185.6 million kg, were said to be down by 7.3 percent on those of the previous season, due to unhelpful weather.
The target for this season had been 215 million kg.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) said growers had been paid $551 million for their tobacco.
In February, the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union said it expected flue-cured tobacco prices to be ‘favorable’ this year.
The quality of the crop was said to be excellent and so grower prices, which buyers say are based on quality, should have been excellent also.
At that time, growers believed that prices ranging between US$4.00 and US$5.00 per kg would be favorable.
Such prices, they said, would allow them to break even and to continue producing flue-cured tobacco next season.
August 17, 2017
Play it again, Sam
Farmers are being encouraged to follow ‘proper methods’ in growing their tobacco in a bid to produce quality leaf and realize ‘significant earnings,’ according to a Capital Radio Malawi story.
But while the story suggested that quality was the key to ‘significant earnings’; it suggested too that the fall in prices that had occurred was due to tobacco-product volume declines.
‘The tobacco industry is facing numerous challenges on the international market, due to the anti-smoking lobby championed by the World Health Organization (WHO),’ the story said.
‘This has led to a decline in prices as well as markets for the crop, which is Malawi’s major foreign exchange earner.’
The Capital Radio story said that during the 2016/2017 growing season, Malawi had reduced the quantity of tobacco it had produced from that of previous years, without saying by how much.
The story did not say, either, how the average grower price this year had compared with that of previous years when more tobacco had been grown.
The story did say, however, that this year’s market, which opened in April and closed last month, generated US$199 million, down US$77 million or about 28 percent from that of 2016, $276 million; and down US$138 million or about 41 percent from that of 2015.
The Tobacco Control Commission’s acting CEO, David Luka, was said to have told Capital FM, that ‘despite low production, the quality of the leaf improved this year’.
Luka said this was mainly because farmers were now using certified seeds, and were properly monitored and inspected.
August 15, 2017