Tag: International

KT&G ambitions grow
South Korea’s KT&G aims to become one of the world’s top four tobacco manufacturers by 2025 by tapping into emerging markets and quadrupling its overseas sales, according to a story in The Pulse.
KT&G announced its mid- to long-term ambitions at its headquarters in Daejeon yesterday, saying that it would work hard to develop new brands and pursue a bold reorganization.
To achieve its goal of more than quadrupling its global sales and entering markets in Latin America and Africa, it would establish regional offices in the Asia-Pacific, America, Africa and Eurasia that focused on developing brands that met the needs of local consumers.
The value of KT&G’s overseas sales reached 941.4 billion won ($868 million) last year through the sale of 48.7 billion cigarettes.
Its overseas sales, amounting to 2.6 billion cigarettes in 1999, started to increase in 2002 after privatization.
Between January and September this year, the company sold 41.5 billion cigarettes overseas, which puts it on stream to hit a record high this year.
Meanwhile, KT&G has been maintaining its leading position in the local market with a share of 60 percent.
December 1, 2017
Impacting the illegal trade
Philip Morris International said yesterday that it had received 157 expressions of interest in its second funding round for PMI IMPACT, its global initiative to support third party projects dedicated to fighting illegal trade and related crimes.
In a note posted on its website, it said the applications had come from a range of government agencies, public universities, private companies, and not-for-profit organizations across 56 countries of Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the EU, and the US.
“The Expert Council is encouraged by the substantial number of responses to our invitation for expressions of interest in combatting illegal trade in all its forms,” said Navi Pillay, member of the PMI IMPACT Expert Council.
“It is gratifying to receive such sustained support for the initiative taken by PMI IMPACT to get all relevant stakeholders to work together.
“We will be reviewing the applications and will make a selection of the successful candidates shortly.”
The second funding round of PMI IMPACT focuses on projects aimed at tackling converging forms of illegal trade such as the smuggling and counterfeiting of goods, human trafficking, and the trade in drugs, arms, and wildlife.
The second round is due to examine also the links between the illegal trade and related crimes, including corruption and money laundering, and organized criminal networks.
“We would like to thank all applicants for their proposals,” said Alvise Giustiniani, PMI’s vice president illicit trade strategies and prevention.
“Our hope is that PMI IMPACT will be a global enabler for innovative projects against illegal trade, and we are encouraged to see this initiative materialize and evolve year after year.”
‘Following the review of the expressions of interest, selected applicants will be invited to submit their full project proposals in early 2018 for further evaluation and final selection by the PMI IMPACT Expert Council, a body of external independent experts in the fields of law, anti-corruption, human rights, and law enforcement,’ PMI’s note said.
‘PMI has pledged US$100 million for three funding rounds of PMI IMPACT. 32 projects were selected for funding in the initiative’s first round, with allocated grants of approximately US$28 million.’
November 29, 2017
Tobacco shown the door
BNP Paribas has said that it will cease transactions and investments related to the tobacco sector and progressively disengage from relationships with tobacco clients, according to a Bloomberg News story relayed by the TMA.
The France-based banking and financial services group’s clients are said to include British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands and Philip Morris International.
Laurence Pessez, global head of corporate social responsibility at BNP Paribas, said the decision to disengage from the tobacco sector was effective from now, though withdrawal would be progressive to the extent that the bank would honor its commitments to its clients.
BNP said in a statement that its new position applied to firms that earned their revenue mainly from tobacco, including manufacturers, wholesalers and traders.
The move was reportedly prompted by a recent decision by the UN Global Compact to exclude tobacco firms from its initiative for a responsible economy.
Pessez said BNP Paribas had “a certain number of sector-specific policies that govern our interventions in industries considered sensitive, such as defense, nuclear energy, palm oil and agriculture”.
November 28, 2017
TFWA has new website
The TFWA (Tax-Free World Association) has unveiled a new-look website at tfwa.com.
‘Completely redesigned, the association’s principal online presence now features a simpler, cleaner layout and more accessible architecture that’s easy to navigate,’ the TFWA said in a press note.
‘The site’s one-page format gives priority to clarity and visual appeal while communicating key points quickly. Text is now crisper and more concise…
‘A new, enhanced structure enables the content to be layered, allowing visitors to see headline information first before clicking through to view further details.
‘The introduction of a Resource Centre means a wide range of media in different formats can be accessed directly.’
The association said that other site improvements included better integration with social media, faster and more accurate search results, and greater focus on duty free and travel retail as an industry in the site content. A new FAQ facility for each section provided responses to common queries.
November 24, 2017
Murder, she suggested
The idea that tobacco companies could face murder trials should be treated with contempt, according to a story by Rob Lyons on Spiked.
Part of a Sunday Times report of November 12 that was reprinted on the ASH UK (Action on Smoking and Health) website on November 13 quoted the organization’s chief executive Deborah Arnott, as saying that, in the light of the Dutch action, ASH was assessing the feasibility of pressing the Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Imperial Brands and Japan Tobacco International, or obtaining permission for a private prosecution.
“The lesson from the Netherlands is that the prospect of criminal charges has had a sensational impact,” Arnott said. “Smokers have been angry to find out low tar cigarettes are no healthier, because smokers inhale more tar and nicotine from low tar cigarettes than the tests show. Sick smokers have come forward in their thousands to take action against the industry.”
According to the ASH rendition of the Times’ story, campaigners in nine countries are working on comparable cases. This followed a meeting of activists in Geneva this summer convened by ASH US.
Lyons dismissed the two main grounds on which such prosecutions would apparently be based: that smokers were misled into believing that low-tar cigarettes were safer than were regular cigarettes, and that many people started smoking when they were children and should have been protected.
Lyons said that anti-smoking campaigners were facing an existential crisis because they had largely won the argument about restricting people’s freedom to smoke; and that’s why they were now coming up with hare-brained strategies.
It was high time that those people who believed in choice fought back, he said.
Lyons piece is at: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/no-big-tobacco-is-not-murdering-people/20535#.Wg1RM4inxPZ.
The ASH piece is at: http://ash.org.uk/media-and-news/ash-daily-news/ash-daily-news-13-november-2017/
November 16, 2017
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.
November 13, 2017
Row over ILO tobacco funds
Japan Tobacco International has said it commends the governing body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for postponing its decision on the continuation of the ILO’s partnerships with the tobacco sector in the fight against child labor.
‘ARISE (Achieving Reduction in Child Labor in Support of Education), JTI’s current public private partnership with the ILO, has proven that the most efficient approach is a co-ordinated one involving all areas of expertise,’ JTI said in a note posted on its website and issued through PRNewswire.
“Together, we have already withdrawn thousands of children from child labor since its launch in 2011,” said Elaine McKay, global leaf social programs director at JTI.
“The issues involved are much more complex than the over-simplified view portrayed by the FCTC [World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] secretariat and anti-tobacco activists, who are more concerned about the source of funding than fighting child labor.
“It is now crucial that the governing body assesses this misdirected pressure on the social mandate of the ILO, and understands fully what is at stake – the future of tobacco growing communities – before reaching a consensus.”
According to an ABC report, relayed by the TMA, ILO spokesman, Hans von Rohland, corrected an earlier report that the agency would end their PPPs and stop accepting funding from the tobacco industry to combat child labor.
The agency apparently issued a revised, one-point decision saying its governing body had instructed its director-general to present an ‘integrated ILO strategy to address decent work deficits in the tobacco sector’ at its next meeting in March.
In an email to reporters yesterday, von Rohland said, ‘We sent you the wrong version of the decision taken by the ILO governing body on ILO co-operation with the tobacco industry’.
The ABC said the ILO had received more than $15 million through partnerships that aimed to fight child labor, and, in doing so, had attracted criticism from anti-tobacco groups that it was the only UN agency that still collaborated with the tobacco industry.
The row over tobacco funding seems to have arisen not so much because of the source of the ILO funding, however, but because some people see one of the root cause of child labor in tobacco production as being endemic poverty among tobacco producers – poverty brought about by the generally-low prices paid to these producers by the tobacco industry.
Meanwhile, the ECLT (Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing) foundation, in a press note headed, ILO to develop strategy to address decent work in tobacco, said the ILO’s governing body had concluded the discussion regarding the collaboration between the organisation and the tobacco industry by calling on the director-general to develop ‘an integrated ILO strategy to address decent work deficits in the tobacco sector’ while ‘taking into account all views expressed in the current session’ [ECLT quote marks].
‘The integrated strategy, to be developed and presented at the governing body session in March 2018, will have significant impact on the realisation of the legal and human rights of the children and families of more than 40 million tobacco farmers in over 120 countries worldwide,’ the ECLT’s press note said.
‘The ECLT foundation renews its commitment to these children, their families, and their communities. The foundation will continue to advocate for strong policies in both government and private sector, which evolve into laws and responsible business practices that keep children out of labor and promote decent work, in line with international legal frameworks including ILO Conventions 138, 182 and 184.
‘Through our efforts directly in tobacco-growing communities, the ECLT foundation has seen concrete results, which are maximised by working in partnership to find collaborative solutions for the systemic causes of child labour. Therefore, the foundation seeks to engage all relevant stakeholders, even those with differing views, on how to bring about sustainable social change for the children and communities we serve.
‘ECLT will continue to prioritize impact and transparency for all of its work, as well as continuing research while sharing best practices and effective models to increase our global efforts to accelerate the transformation of agricultural communities, for the ultimate benefit of children, farmers and their families.’
November 10, 2017
Child labor dispute
A row has broken out between the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ELCT) and the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) over the foundation’s activities.
In a press note issued on Monday, the ELCT alleged that public assertions made by the FCA concerning the ECLT foundation in its online article ILO amongst last UN Agencies accepting money from ‘Big Tobacco’ were ‘false and devoid of up-to-date evidence’.
‘Specifically, the ECLT Foundation notes that the FCA has failed to provide any credible, independently-corroborated evidence to support their assertion that, “Reports have repeatedly claimed that ECLT’s work aims to keep farmers dependent on aid from the tobacco industry to avoid them abandoning the sector(sic),”’ the ELCT said in its press note. ‘ECLT strongly rejects this false accusation, which is lacking evidence and solely supported by references from unnamed third parties.
‘In addition, the separate assertion that, as an independent Swiss Foundation, “ECLT allows the tobacco industry to promote a positive public image while continuing the practices that cause labour exploitation in the first place”, is both insulting to the work that the Foundation has carried out since 2000, and again, is untrue.
‘Having reached over 650,000 children and families in tobacco-growing communities since 2011 alone, working in partnership to find collaborative solutions for the systemic causes of child labour, the ECLT Foundation stands by the results of its work…
‘In this debate, the stakes for millions of children and their families are high, and the subsequent decision has significant potential to directly impact the realisation of their human and legal rights, including to escape poverty and other forms of exploitation and to secure decent conditions in which to work and live with dignity.
‘The ECLT Foundation, therefore, shares the FCA’s view that eliminating child labour is “of utmost importance and a goal that must be pursued”.
‘For the tens of thousands of children and families who are benefiting from ECLT interventions and public-private partnerships working to help keep children in school and out of fields, it is imperative that the debate regarding collaboration towards eliminating child labour remain fair, fact-based and focused on the needs of the rights holders. Statements made by any actor, including the FCA, must be either truthful, or immediately retracted.
‘The ECLT Foundation remains committed to encouraging a public debate that is open, transparent, and accountable to the children and their families, who are ultimately impacted by this and other key international decisions.’
November 2, 2017
PMI is environmental leader
Philip Morris International today was again recognized as a global leader for environmental action in the annual CDP rankings, according to a note posted on the company’s website.
‘For the fourth year in a row, PMI is on the CDP Climate A List for taking comprehensive action on climate change and for its transparent disclosure process,’ the note said.
‘In addition, PMI achieved A List status for CDP Water, recognizing the company’s water stewardship initiatives.
‘PMI is one of only 25 companies that scored an A for both climate and water, placing the company in the top one percent of corporations known as the “A Listers” for both schemes.’
CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, is said to be the leading international not-for-profit organization independently assessing the environmental efforts of thousands of companies worldwide against its scoring methodology.
More than 3,000 major companies submitted information for independent assessment for 2016.
CDP’s A List recognizes companies around the world, spanning different industries, for leadership in their actions to address environmental risk during the past reporting year.
Its environmental benchmark reports are produced at the request of 827 investors with assets of US$100 trillion.
“Climate change and clean water shortage are among the biggest challenges facing humanity today,” said PMI’s CEO André Calantzopoulos.
“I am proud that PMI is one of only 25 companies that achieved double ‘A List’ status for both climate and water in CDP’s rankings, and moving forward, even more global action is needed and must be encouraged to collectively address these environmental priorities.”
PMI said in its note that it had made a number of environmental improvements and introduced new initiatives in 2016, including:
- An absolute carbon emissions reduction of more than four percent compared to that of 2015, resulting in a saving of about 250,000 tons of CO2 per year versus that of 2010, due to environmental improvements in its operations;
- The adoption of science-based targets to achieve a 40 percent reduction in its carbon footprint across its entire value chain by 2030 and a 60 percent reduction by 2040;
- The introduction of an internal price on carbon to help the company rank and prioritize its carbon-reduction projects to meet its targets, such as plans to have 80 percent of the electricity used in its factories coming from renewable sources by 2030; and
- A company-wide water footprint analysis, risk assessment, and set of initiatives throughout the company’s entire value chain enabling it to make step changes in water stewardship.
October 24, 2017
Growers have their say
Tobacco growers around the world are concerned about the implementation of inappropriate tobacco-control measures, and they are particularly concerned about a proposal by the US Food and Drug Administration to reduce the nicotine delivery levels of cigarettes.
Representatives of tobacco-grower organizations from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Macedonia, Malawi, South Africa, Turkey, the US, Zambia and Zimbabwe met in Greece on October 17 for the annual meeting of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association.
The representatives said growers were aware of the efforts that had to be made to improve tobacco production and sustainability, and to address challenges such as child labour and deforestation. Growers were committed to working in a compliant manner, following good agriculture practices, to produce a crop that supplied a legal market of more than 900 million consumers and that provided a livelihood to millions of farmers, rural workers and their families around the world.
In a note posted on its website, the ITGA said growers accepted the need to regulate the consumption of tobacco products, but insisted that regulatory measures should be balanced and based on science, not on personal opinions. It was vital to prevent the implementation of measures that had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of millions of tobacco farmers and labourers without achieving any of the desired aims of tobacco control.
Growers were said to be particularly concerned with the recent proposal by the FDA to reduce the nicotine in cigarettes. This measure would influence policy makers outside the US and the effect of it would be felt by the most vulnerable part of the tobacco value chain, the growers. The reduction of nicotine, said the growers, would make the production and sale of traditional cigarettes almost impossible, pushing consumers to illicit products that did not respect such limits. Demand for legal tobacco would drop sharply without an alternative plan being in place for tobacco growers.
Those attending the meeting in Greece agreed that a platform that included all relevant stakeholders, including health authorities, should be set up to discuss this issue and seek solutions. But they seemed not to be optimistic.
‘The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) keeps excluding growers and their representatives from the discussions being held about matters having a direct impact on tobacco production and, therefore, on growers’ livelihoods,’ the note said. ‘Growers are a legitimate part of this process and they have been asking for their inclusion into the FCTC’s debates.
‘Many of the subjects being debated in the FCTC meetings concern tobacco growers across the world. ‘More specifically articles 17 and 18 relate directly to tobacco production as they refer to alternatives to tobacco production and the environmental impact of tobacco growing.
‘Growers have been offering their help and their expertise to define measures that will directly affect their future. The legitimate growers’ representatives could have helped the government delegations attending FCTC meetings to have a much more realistic view of the present situation of tobacco growing around the world.
‘Growers insist that the WHO FCTC must return to its original mandate under Article 17, as was reiterated at the previous Conference of the Parties (COP6) in Moscow. Said COP6 reaffirmed the importance of carrying out studies and research to identify alternative crops that could provide a level of income and assured export markets equal to those provided by tobacco. For this reason, it was agreed upon that pilot projects in tobacco-growing regions would be necessary to demonstrate the long-term feasibility of such alternative crops.’
Since the beginning of the FCTC negotiations, growers have requested that:
- their right to be consulted on the development of policies which have a direct impact on them must be guaranteed;
- the significant economic contribution of the tobacco crop to the economies of tobacco-growing countries should be recognized; and
- a comprehensive economic study on the market should be conducted and taken into account when proposing measures.
October 23, 2017