Tag: Alliance One International

Fruitful Cooperation

Photos: Alliance One International
By partnering with Bayer Crop Science, Alliance One International improves farmer livelihoods.
By Stefanie Rossel
Ending poverty is the first of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals, which are supposed to be achieved by 2030. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the battle to end hunger and poverty must be principally fought in rural areas, which is where almost 80 percent of the world’s hungry and poor live. Success requires investment in “agents of change,” according to the FAO—smallholders, family farmers and other vulnerable groups. To feed more people with less water, farmland and biodiversity, better management and improved techniques in agriculture will be needed.
Agriculture is central to all activities in smallholder communities. In economic terms, most activities in these communities revolve around being able to develop a system that provides food security and improves the health of its members. The work of smallholders is an economic driver, creating prosperity for the community.
Keen to enhance farmers’ incomes, Alliance One International recently embarked on a new project. In June 2021, the company announced that its Alliance One Brazil (AOB) subsidiary was partnering with Bayer Crop Science to provide quality maize seeds and agronomic support to smallholder tobacco farmers in Brazil. AOB’s goal is to help its contracted farmers diversify their income by strengthening the quality and yield of a crop that is cultivated complementary to tobacco in the country.
“For AOI, improving farmer livelihoods is a top priority, and we are committed to maximizing all farmers’ income potential by 2030 through appropriate training in good agricultural practices and the opportunity for crop diversification,” explains AOI President Alex Strohschoen. “Through this partnership, we are making strides to achieve this goal and have already seen positive impacts for growers and their communities.”
During the 2020 growing season, AOB implemented a pilot project in which 2,300 of its contracted Brazilian smallholder tobacco farmers received a high-quality agronomic package for maize. “While many of our contracted growers in Brazil already grow maize in addition to tobacco, they lacked access to high-quality crop inputs such as seed, fertilizer and agronomic support,” says Strohschoen. “This prevented them from scaling up their production and limited their financial return. This agronomic package provides our contracted growers with access to Bayer’s maize seed varieties as well as fertilizer and hands-on guidance from our agronomists and field technicians, helping improve crop quality and yield, in turn, increasing the farmer’s bottom line.”
Globally, AOI employs approximately 1,000 trained agronomists and field technicians that conduct more than 1 million farm visits annually. “These individuals regularly share their expertise to support our contracted growers and are key to this partnership,” says Strohschoen.

Alex Strohschoen
Research Required
Bayer Crop Science offers a range of maize varieties with enhanced features. For instance, a maize variety can be more water efficient, high yielding or resistant to typical maize pests than other varieties.
In the case of AOI’s contracted Brazilian growers, use of Bayer maize varieties, grown using high-quality fertilizer and agronomic support from AOI, made a difference. “Prior to this project’s implementation, our Brazilian tobacco farmers that also cultivate maize produced on average less than 5,500 kg/ha,” says Strohschoen. “The agronomic package that we provide gives growers access to some of the most advanced technology available on the market, potentially increasing yields to over 10,000 kg/ha.”
As part two of the initiative, AOB offered the opportunity to participate in the program across its grower base during the 2021 growing season. Following the season’s completion, Strohschoen said, participating farmers saw a 15 percent increase in maize yield compared to the 2020 growing season, increasing a farmer’s income by $270 per hectare on average. “This additional income supplements the livelihood of our contracted growers and is an important piece of addressing other concerns, such as child labor, deforestation, etc.”
Similar to Africa, where climate change appears to be a big challenge for farmers, extreme weather patterns are impacting crop production in Brazil. Less and less predictable weather patterns make it difficult for growers to determine the right time to plant whereas the worsening precipitation deficit as well as increased frequency and severity of droughts are becoming more prevalent and more concerning. “Food insecurity is a global issue driven by various factors, including increased demand, war and conflict, climate change, and economic slowdowns and downturns exacerbated by Covid-19,” says Strohschoen.

An AOB leaf instructor (left) and a contracted farmer
Expansion Envisaged
Over the next three years, AOB intends to expand the project to include other crops—and other countries. AOI works with nearly 300,000 farmers in 20 countries across five continents, and it is the company’s aim to provide all of its contracted growers with the opportunity to diversify their income and increase their bottom line, says Strohschoen. “To do this, we must evaluate a number of factors to ensure we are implementing projects in the appropriate regions with crops that offer our contracted growers the greatest potential return. For example, we began this project in Brazil because approximately 75 percent of our contracted Brazilian farmers produce maize in addition to tobacco. Since these farmers were already growing maize, many had the infrastructure necessary to produce the crop prior to implementing the project.”
Following the success of the project’s first two phases in Brazil, it makes sense to expand it to a country with a similar climate and where growers have a seminal relationship with maize. “As we enter the 2022 growing season, we plan to introduce the program to our contracted farmers in Argentina, where a significant portion of our grower base could benefit from improving the quality and yield of their maize crops,” says Strohschoen.
In addition to the maize project in Brazil, AOI is also working on other projects around the globe. “For example, in Malawi, we have commercialized new groundnut and soya seed varieties,” says Strohschoen. “We provide interested tobacco growers with inputs, including agronomic expertise, helping them diversify their crop portfolios and produce high-quality crops for domestic, regional and international markets.”
With tobacco accounting for 54 percent of merchandise exports in 2019 and about 15 percent of GDP, the landlocked Southeastern African country is one of the world’s most economically tobacco-dependent nations. Not only in Malawi does food security remain an issue; it’s also a global problem that is being exacerbated by various factors, including increased demand, war and conflict, and economic slowdowns and downturns aggravated by Covid-19. Currently, Russia’s war against Ukraine is severely jeopardizing food security around the world.
“AOI is committed to doing whatever we can to transform people’s lives so that together we can grow a better world,” Strohschoen says. “This starts within our immediate network. To do our part to address global crises, we must first look at what improvements can be made within our supply chain. This begins with providing our contracted farmers with the tools they need to diversify their income and create additional food sources in their communities.”
Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.

June 1, 2022
AOI Promotes Grower Income Diversification

Photo: AOI
Alliance One Brazil has partnered with Bayer Crop Science to provide quality maize seeds and agronomic support to smallholder tobacco farmers in Brazil. Through the partnership, Alliance One Brazil’s goal is to help its contracted farmers diversify their income by strengthening the quality and yield of a crop that is complementary to tobacco.
“Approximately 75 percent of our contracted Brazilian farmers produce maize along with tobacco,” said Helio Moura, AOI’s global agronomy director, in a statement. “By providing our contracted farmers with a high-quality agronomic package for maize, we are helping them improve the quality and yield of the maize crop.”
“One of our company’s top priorities is the improvement of farmer livelihoods.”
During the 2020 growing season, Alliance One Brazil implemented a pilot project with 2,300 farmers to evaluate interest in future program participation.
The team found that farmers appreciated the support and guidance related to maize in addition to the ongoing support related to tobacco.
As a result of the positive feedback from the farmers, Alliance One Brazil will implement this project across its full farmer base throughout the 2021 crop season.
Over the next three years, Alliance One Brazil intends to expand the project to include other crops, and AOI will evaluate how the project could be expanded throughout the company’s global operations.
By providing the necessary support to enhance the crops that they are already growing, we are providing our contracted farmers with the tools they need to diversify their income.
Helio Moura, global agronomy director, AOI
“One of our company’s top priorities is the improvement of farmer livelihoods,” Moura added. “By providing the necessary support to enhance the crops that they are already growing, we are providing our contracted farmers with the tools they need to diversify their income. In addition, crop diversification is becoming increasingly important as extreme weather patterns impact crop production. We are excited about the potential for this project and the potential for AOI to scale it at a global level in the future.”
AOI is profiled in Tobacco Reporter’s June 2021 print edition.
June 4, 2021
Beyond Volumes

Photo: AOI
Alliance One International believes there is opportunity for leaf suppliers who can offer tobacco produced in a sustainable and compliant manner.
By George Gay
It seems likely that many businesses will not, for the foreseeable future at least, resume all the working methods they employed before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. This was to be expected. Businesses have been forced to examine their operations closely in developing strategies to overcome hurdles thrown up by the pandemic, and this self-examination was always going to come up with ideas that resonated beyond the time when we eliminate or learn to live with Covid-19.
For instance, throughout a wide range of tobacco industry businesses, high levels of travel have long involved economic and environmental costs that, but for inertia, could have been reduced by utilizing modern communications. Now, the pandemic has nudged into sharper focus the rationale surrounding travel and communications—along with other aspects of doing business.
Alliance One International (AOI) provides a case in point, especially given that it is part of the leaf tobacco sector in which travel has long been part of the fabric. In an email exchange last month, the company said that while it expected its business travel to pick up again, it did not expect it to return to the level that it was prior to the arrival of Covid-19. “The past year has demonstrated how effective teams can be when working remotely and using technology, and we expect that trend to continue,” said Alex Strohschoen, president of Alliance One. “That said, there is value in face-to-face interaction, and we look forward to being able to collaborate with our colleagues and customers worldwide when it is safe to do so again.”
While Alliance One, like all businesses, was last year caught up in managing the changes made necessary by the spread of Covid-19 to pandemic status, it was involved, too, in well-publicized changes to its parent company, Pyxus International, which in June filed voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code and then, in August, was able to announce that it had completed its financial restructuring and emerged from Chapter 11. However, Strohschoen said the changes to Pyxus had been largely tied to other divisions of the company, not necessarily Alliance One. “We have restructured, but those changes were driven by a desire to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the business rather than a result of any changes at the parent company.”

Sustainability and Compliance
The need for increased efficiency, however that is manifested, is a must for a sector in which demand for its product is presumably on a long-term slide. And Alliance One believes there are opportunities out there beyond volumes. “We believe there is a good opportunity for leaf suppliers who can offer a product produced in a sustainable and compliant manner, and Alliance One is a leader in this space,” Strohschoen said, before adding that consumers of all types of tobacco products, including combustible cigarettes, wanted to know how their products were manufactured and where the various components came from.
At the same time, regulation was evolving, and bodies such as the EU were exploring rules that would require corporations to share publicly more information about their supply chains, Strohschoen said. And, in the case of cigarettes, complying with such rules could be achieved only by working with suppliers such as Alliance One.
In addition, as major manufacturers looked to reduce complexity in their operations, Alliance One expected that they would begin to reverse the vertical integration of their supply chains.
In recognizing these trends, Alliance One says it has been investing in its sustainability and agronomy departments. The company’s objective, Strohschoen said, was the long-term success of the business, which would be achieved by meeting the balance between “the needs and expectations of our various stakeholders and those of our company” in a manner that was underpinned by a strong commitment to managing the business ethically and operating with integrity in all aspects of the business.
The company says that it is primarily focused on managing its impact in those areas directly related to its business. “This includes managing our carbon emissions to reduce environmental impact, responsibly managing water and waste, providing safe and healthy workplaces for our employees, providing a satisfying and inclusive working environment, supporting local communities, upholding human rights and working to enhance farmer livelihoods,” said Strohschoen.

At its global R&D hub in Brazil, AOI develops new technologies to support the improvement of crop quality and efficiency. (Photo: AOI)
Research and Deployment
Alliance One contracts tobacco from growers in 20 countries but has a presence in about 30 countries and sells to customers in about 90 countries. It primarily contracts flue-cured, Burley and oriental tobacco, but it works also with other varieties, including air-cured, sun-cured and dark-fired. About 50 percent of its employees directly interact in some capacity with about 300,000 farmers across five continents, an operation that involves about 1,000 trained agronomists and field technicians conducting more than one million farm visits annually.
Of course, it is important to realize that farming these days is not about dirty fingernails, or not only about dirty fingernails. Global agronomy director, Helio Moura, said that Alliance One had established a global research and development structure to support agronomic research, development and deployment of new technologies, with capabilities that included agronomy science, breeding and seeds, and development and deployment training.
“Since 2005, the Alliance One Brazil (AOB) operations have managed an R&D operation which has supported the development and release of new technologies around the world,” said Moura. “And in 2020, the company adjusted its global structure so that the AOB R&D facility has become AOI’s Global Research, Development & Deployment (GRD&D) Center. The GRD&D Center, located on an 82 hectare existing company property in Passo do Sobrado, Brazil, was officially repurposed in December 2020.
“We have all the tools necessary to accelerate the deployment of cutting-edge technologies globally in order to increase farmer profitability, improve product quality and comply with regulation, which enhance the sustainability of our global tobacco production chain.
“In addition to the GRD&D Center in Brazil, we are maintaining an R&D hub in Turkey to focus on oriental tobacco. Alliance One primarily produces oriental tobacco in Europe, and by conducting research on the crop from the region in which it is grown, we can increase the speed at which we can bring solutions to the market.”
We must help the farmer improve their profitability to address other concerns, such as child labor, deforestation, etc.
Helio Moura, global agronomy directior, AOI
Future-Proofing Farmers
The need for such research and the dissemination of the results that stem from it is predicated on a demand for tobacco and, though Alliance One did not discuss volumes, it looks likely that demand will fall in the future unless in the unlikely event that the uptick in smoking apparently caused by smokers’ reactions to the pandemic and stories stemming from it turns into a medium-term or even long-term trend. At the same time, noises coming out of the U.S. seem to indicate that that country at least could be heading into a future of very-low-nicotine tobacco: tobacco that presumably not all tobacco-growing countries will be able or willing to produce. So the question arises as to what support will be available as, presumably, increasing numbers of farmers are forced to abandon tobacco growing.
“Enhancing farmer livelihoods is a priority for our entire business,” said Moura. “As demand for tobacco changes, we are focused on helping farmers continue to improve their efficiency as well as diversify their crops. By helping farmers improve their crop yield, quality and management, we can help maximize their profitability but also improve the quality of the life across environmental, social and cultural pillars—thereby creating a truly sustainable crop that is beneficial for stakeholders throughout society. When considering this approach, it is important to recognize that the economic lever is the main one which supports our strategy. We must help the farmer improve their profitability in order to address other concerns, such as child labor, deforestation, etc.”
Alliance One says that this is not a new initiative but one it has been involved in for quite a few years.
“In Malawi, we have introduced growers to a variety of new-to-them crops, including groundnuts, maize and soya, and provided the agronomic expertise to enable them to successfully bring those products to market,” said Moura.
“In Brazil, we have partnered with Bayer Crop Science to provide quality maize seeds and agronomic support to smallholder tobacco farmers. Approximately 75 percent of our contracted Brazilian farmer base produces maize along with tobacco. By providing them with high-quality agronomic maize packages, we are helping them improve the quality and yield of the maize crop. We implemented a pilot project in Brazil during the 2020 growing season with 2,300 farmers and found that farmers appreciated the support and guidance we provided. As a result, we will implement this project across the country’s entire base of farmers in the 2021 season.
“By providing the necessary support to enhance the crops that they are already growing, we are providing our contracted farmers with the tools they need to diversify their income and create an additional food source. In addition, crop diversification is becoming increasingly important as extreme weather patterns impact crop production. We are excited about the potential for this project and the potential for AOI to scale it at a global level in the future.”
Pandemic Exit Strategy
Finally, it is impossible these days to ignore the pandemic, and nowhere is this more so than in the case of a company with a global presence. At any one time, some of these countries are going to be suffering another wave of infections and hospitalization; some are going to be in lockdown while others are going to be entering or leaving lockdown, and some are going to have achieved high levels of vaccinations while others will not have done so.
“At Alliance One, we have taken immense steps to protect the health and wellness of our employees, and we are continuously adjusting our plans as we respond to the evolution of the virus and its impact on our operations,” said Strohschoen. “Some of the many actions we have taken include changing shift size and keeping employees working in the same ‘pods,’ adjusting work hours, requiring employees to wear face masks and socially distance, implementing work-from-home procedures and better enabling remote work through technology. … We also worked with farmers throughout the world to provide PPE and offer guidance on how to adjust ways of working to keep farmworkers safe.
“At the same time, we implemented these measures so that we could minimize the spread of Covid within the operations and enable the operations to continue running. We had to make sure we could keep buying, processing and shipping tobacco so that we could meet customer requirements … Operationally, we have accelerated some of our internal processes to enable us to ship more efficiently and provide additional time to allow for longer logistical processes.”
George Gay is Tobacco Reporter’s European editor, but his territory spans the globe. Based in London, George has covered the tobacco industry since 1982, initially for a U.K.-based publication and since 2004 for Tobacco Reporter. George’s understanding of industry issues, combined with his keen sense of observation and dry wit, have earned him a loyal following among Tobacco Reporter’s readers.

June 1, 2021
Up to the Task

Alliance One International and other reputable leaf merchants are working hard to ensure the children of their contracted farmers are at school rather than in the tobacco field. (Photo: Taco Tuinstra)
The elimination of forced labor in the tobacco supply chain is a top priority for Alliance One International.
By Kenneth Robeson
It’s a problem that can’t be ignored: a lot of the tobacco industry’s leaf is sourced in developing countries with loose labor laws and/or weak enforcement mechanisms. For example, last November U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a “withhold release order” on imports into the U.S. of tobacco from Malawi based on a suspicion that forced labor was used in Malawi to produce the country’s tobacco crop.
The U.S. Tariff Act defines “forced labor” as “All work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for its nonperformance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily.” The term “forced labor or/and indentured labor” includes forced or indentured child labor.
Forced labor, says Nate Peeters, a spokesman for the Office of Public Affairs for the CBP, is “a global challenge that is not limited to a single industry, product or region. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that forced labor affects nearly 25 million people and generates an estimated $150 billion in profits every year.”
Indeed, forced labor is a global challenge that hurts millions of workers each year. The State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report and the Department of Labor’s International Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports offer specific information about countries and regions in which forced labor occurs. CBP issues withhold release orders based on allegations that forced labor was used to produce goods that are imported or that may be imported into the United States. Since September 2019, CBP investigated allegations of forced labor and issued withhold release orders on such products as hair accessories and garments manufactured in China, bone char produced in Brazil and disposable rubber gloves from Malaysia.
“Forced labor is a human rights violation that is antithetical to American values,” Peeters points out. “Companies that engage in forced labor subject their workers to threats of physical and sexual violence, withholding of wages, restriction of movement and other abuses. Moreover, imported goods made with forced labor undermine the ability of similar American-made products to be sold at a competitive price.”
Top priority
Michiel Reerink
To combat forced labor and other human rights violations in the tobacco business, leading leaf merchants, such as Alliance One International (AOI), are going to great lengths to ensure their supply chains comply with the highest standards.
The elimination of forced labor in global tobacco production “is a top priority for Alliance One International and all of our subsidiaries,” says Michiel Reerink, international corporate affairs director for AOI. “As part of our long-standing commitment, we purchase the vast majority of our tobacco through direct contracts with farmers, which helps ensure the crops we purchase are grown in compliance with our human rights policy, child labor policy and agricultural labor practices [ALP] program.”
Having found that poverty is a leading driver of forced labor globally, he continues, “we work closely with farmers to improve their crop quality and yield, thereby enhancing profitability. This can be one of the best long-term solutions [to creating long-term change]. Visibility into the supply chain is also important when addressing these issues.”
AOI’s team of field technicians works closely with contracted growers to identify the root causes of these issues and collaboratively develop an action plan that allows for true change to be implemented. In some cases, those root causes are systemic and involve cultural or regulatory issues that need to be overcome through long-term interventions and multi-stakeholder groups.
The company records farm-monitoring visits, including labor incidents, in its Sentri traceability platform. “This allows us to follow up with farmers to ensure action plans have been implemented and problems addressed,” Reerink explains. “In addition, it allows us to aggregate the results to focus our education and training and related CSR programs at the country/community level.”
Following this year’s withhold release orders on tobacco from Malawi, AOI has demonstrated to the satisfaction of CBP that there is no forced labor in its Malawi supply chain. In response, CBP lifted its restrictions on AOI imports of Malawi tobacco into the United States. As of June 3, 2020, tobacco imported from Malawi by AOI is again admissible at all U.S. ports of entry.
“From our perspective, labor challenges can be found throughout the global agricultural supply chain,” says Reerink. “Regardless of the country in which we are operating, we work with our contracted grower base to ensure their crops are produced in compliance with our various policies and programs which are aligned with the objective of eliminating forced labor.”
Reerink and his colleagues recognize that improving agricultural practices can take time, “particularly when we are attempting to change long-standing cultural practices, and we work with our contracted growers to implement new measures in ways that provide tangible benefits to them.”
In 2011, AOI introduced its ALP program worldwide. The standards in the program were designed to meet ILO standards. Through the program, the company monitors contracted farmers for compliance with numerous requirements to ensure the rights of farm workers are respected. Its policies and programs create a comprehensive framework that includes, among other restrictions, a prohibition against allowing anyone under the age of 18 to conduct any hazardous tasks, and utilizes a combination of grower education and training, farm monitoring, third-party audits and third-party stakeholder engagement to document and improve compliance.
For example, in Malawi, AOI personnel conduct farmer training and education in group settings as well as one-on-one during frequent farm-monitoring visits. In 2019, representatives visited each contracted farmer an average of 10 times per season. In 2019, they conducted over 139,000 individual farm visits there in a combination of announced, semi-announced and unannounced visits. Adds Reerink, “To help enhance awareness and comprehension of ALP, the local Alliance One Malawi team also created radio broadcasts and drama performances to expand understanding of the risks of child labor into the community.”
Multi-stakeholder involvement plays a key role in improving labor practices as they are often tied to long-standing cultural traditions. For example, once again in Malawi, in 2019 Alliance One Malawi established 179 ALP Village Committees involving farmers, village headmen, teachers and religious leaders trained by company staff. These committees were set up to promote public discussion about ALP, help farmers improve agronomic practices by gathering and sharing information, and encourage community buy-in, accelerating the implementation and acceptance of ALP among farmers and supporting ALP compliance within the community.
The protection of human rights is an agricultural sector issue, Reerink points out, not specific to the tobacco industry. “Some tobacco industry suppliers, including Alliance One, have taken actions with their respective contracted farmer bases that have led to significant improvements in the experiences of farmworkers. However, without the alignment and support of other tobacco suppliers and supply chains for other crops, implementing long-term solutions becomes much more of a challenge.” It will, he feels, take a continued multi-stakeholder effort to truly drive long-term change in labor practices and address some of the systemic challenges facing the agricultural supply chain.

Advertisement
Clear and direct message
The battle against forced labor is ongoing. CBP has a unique statutory authority to prevent goods made through forced labor from entering the United States. Its Office of Trade investigates allegations of forced labor and if substantiated, directs enforcement actions. CBP issues a withhold release order when it has information that reasonably indicates that goods produced using forced labor may be imported into the United States. These orders instruct CBP personnel at ports of entry to detain shipments that contain goods manufactured in whole or in part with forced labor. Withhold release orders “send a clear and direct message to the trade community that CBP will not tolerate forced labor in U.S. supply chains,” Peeters says.
Industry, Peeters suggests, has “the duty to exercise reasonable care and due diligence to ensure that goods produced with forced labor do not enter their supply chains. Companies are on the frontline and should use all available information about the conditions of forced labor in countries where goods are sourced from to ensure they do not import goods produced with forced labor.”
Maintaining transparency of company supply chains can help companies identify and remediate forced labor found in supply chains. CBP will continue to investigate allegations and pursue enforcement actions where evidence reasonably indicates that goods are manufactured with forced labor imported to the United States.
Getting consumers involved
Consumer awareness, CBP’s Nate Peeters insists, is essential for eliminating forced labor.
“Companies will not sell products that consumers do not buy,” he notes. “CBP urges consumers to ask for more details about where and how their products are made and to use their economic power to tell companies that forced labor is against American values.”
Generating and sustaining consumer awareness “is a challenge,” notes Peeters, “but one that is essential to addressing forced labor in U.S. supply chains.”
CBP has been working with its nongovernment and media partners to communicate forced labor enforcement actions to U.S. consumers through press releases, social media content and TV and radio appearances. It also continues to communicate frequently with the trade community about forced labor concerns and measures that companies can take to ensure that they have clean supply chains.
The agency urges consumers to ask for more details about where and how their products are made. “The great deals that can be found online and in stores may be inexpensive because the products were made through modern slavery,” Peeters points out. “Americans can use their economic power to tell businesses that we will not tolerate forced labor in U.S. supply chains.”
October 1, 2020
U.S. Customs Clears Malawi Imports

Tobacco being prepared for export in Lilongwe. Photo: Taco Tuinstra
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) modified a withhold release order (WRO) such that tobacco imported from Malawi by Alliance One International will be admissible at all U.S. ports of entry effective June 3, 2020. CBP previously prevented these tobacco imports from entering the United States based on reasonable suspicion that they were produced using forced labor.
CBP modified the WRO based on a rigorous evaluation of Alliance One International’s social compliance program and efforts to identify and minimize the risks of forced labor from its supply chain. These actions produced evidence that sufficiently supports Alliance One International’s claim that the tobacco produced and harvested from their farms does not use forced labor.
The WRO continues to apply to imports of tobacco from Malawi by any company that has not demonstrated to CBP that there is no forced labor in its supply chain.
“CBP recognizes the impact that withhold release orders have on importers and exporters, therefore we diligently work to carefully and thoroughly review petitions and admissibility requests,” said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s office of trade. “If companies demonstrate that there is no forced labor in their supply chain, we will modify the withhold release order to exclude them.”

June 4, 2020
Pyxus Reportedly in Talks About Bankruptcy

Photo: Pyxus International
Pyxus International has reportedly begun talks with creditors regarding a possible bankruptcy filing, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
The filing is potentially related to declining cigarette consumption and the Covid-19 pandemic following the company’s struggle to make headway in the cannabis and vapor sectors.
May 20, 2020
Jim Schneeberger to retire from AOI
Jim Schneeberger, global business relationship director of Alliance One International and its predecessor companies, will retire on April 3, after 27 years of service. Schneeberger has served in several business relationship management positions throughout his career, most recently leading the Philip Morris International Global BRM team. Graham Kayes will take over the Philip Morris International Global responsibility in the interim.
April 2, 2015
Sikkel new CEO Alliance One
Pieter Sikkel
Pieter Sikkel will become president and chief executive officer of Alliance One International on March 1. Sikkel is currently the company’s president and a member of its board of directors. Mark W. Kehaya, currently chairman of the board of directors and interim CEO, will continue as nonexecutive chairman of the board of directors and will assist in the transition.
“This transition in leadership marks an end to our significant restructuring that began in December of 2010, and the company once again has a firm foundation. We want to thank Mark for his leadership and efforts in driving the restructuring and the refocusing of the business,” said William Sheridan, lead independent director.
“The board of directors and I are extremely pleased to appoint Pieter to the role of president and chief executive officer,” said Kehaya. “Mr. Sikkel has served Alliance One and predecessor companies for over 30 years as China country manager, Asia regional director, executive vice president [of] business strategy and relationship management, and most recently as president of the company and a member of the board of directors.
“Pieter’s exceptional experience, strategic insight and extensive industry knowledge make him well positioned to lead our global team, both to continue and expand on the company’s key initiatives and innovations, and to further strengthen the company’s market position by delivering additional value to our shareholders, customers and growers. I would personally like to thank all of our employees for their efforts, loyalty and talents that they have brought to bear during the last two years.”
“I’d like to thank Mark Kehaya for his excellent work leading the restructuring of the company,” said Sikkel. “As a result of his efforts, Alliance One is in a substantially stronger position to address the varied challenges and opportunities of this industry.
“Alliance One remains firmly focused on both the present and the future. From seed, through leaf and sales, we are committed to supplying the product type and quality that our customers require, to providing the highest quality service, and to being the lowest cost supplier in every market in which we operate.
“In addition, through our continued emphasis on agronomy ingenuity, we remain focused on improving farmer income and sustainable global supply security. We have also instituted programs that are targeted at reducing operating cycle and improving financial metrics, and through such initiatives are seeking to create and capitalize on opportunities that should enhance shareholder value.”

February 8, 2013