Tobacco Asia

50 tobaccoasia LEAF NEWS 烟叶新闻 AUSTRALIA Six Tons of Illegal Crop Seized Authorities seized six tons of illegal tobacco leaf and vast fields of mature plants worth more than AU$13 million (US$9.4 million) in lost tax on a sophisticated, 7-hectare crop outside Katherine in the Northern Territory. This was the first successful strike by a taskforce bringing together agencies including the Australian Tax Office and Australian Border Force. At the property authorities found three separate crops of plants, many more than two meters tall, along with shipping containers used to dry the illicit product, and an extensive irrigation system. It was the first tobacco seizure in the territory, with the plants growing well outside the growing season and thousands of kilometers from estab- lished growing areas. ATO deputy commissioner, Will Day, said, "To anyone seeking to profit from the illegal tobacco trade, the message is clear, there is nowhere to hide. "We will continue to work with our partner agencies to find, seize, and destroy illegal tobacco wherever it is grown." MALAWI Tobacco Revenue Up by 35% Figures released in August 2018 by industry regulator Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) revealed that Malawi's tobacco revenue has gone up by 35%, compared to last year and was expected to exceed US$300 million by the end of the season. TCC said the increase stemmed in part from an influx of leaf imports from neighboring Zambia and Mozambique, which Malawi sold on. TCC c.e.o., Kaisi Sadala, said, "The increase is due to volatility at our borders. A lot of tobacco has moved in from Mozambique and Zambia, and this has gone above our local production estimates." TCC forecast production at 147 million kilograms against market demand of 170. ZIMBABWE Tobacco Output at All-Time High Zimbabwe's tobacco sales reached a record high of 237.1 million kilograms (m.kg) just as it was near the end of the selling season, signaling that controver- sial land reforms could be working and raising hopes that it could help ease the country's severe dollar shortage. In 2017, tobacco accounted for a quarter of the country's US$3.8 billion in total export earnings, second only to gold. The boosted output, which plunged to its lowest in 2008, is attributed to growing demand from China, the world's biggest smoking nation, and funding from private tobacco compa- nies. Figures from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) showed that sales of the crop at local auctions had eclipsed the previous record of 236.9 m.kg in 2000. TIMB figures also showed that this year 111,000 farmers grew tobacco, up from 81,000 last year. Dr Andrew Matibiri, TIMB c.e.o., said more people are farming on smaller plots, which has boosted production despite a mid-season drought. "The transformation that hap- pened, in other words the change of profile of the grower from the large- scale farmer producing an average of 40 hectares, to the small-scale farmer producing an average of one hectare, has been very beneficial to the industry. It has allowed more people, more households to benefit from the very lucrative crop and it has also put Zimbabwe tobacco crop in line with the rest of the world," he said. US Excessive Rains Delay Crops Excessive rains in eastern North Carolina has hit the state's tobacco farmers particularly hard. In fact, some farmers have said the rain is going to hit their pockets just as hard as it has hit their fields. Due to heavy rains this year, farmers were not able to get that heavy equip- ment on the soft soil to harvest the plants, and the plants were either drowning or the leaves were simply too wet to even barn. This lead to delays getting the crop to the market, which opened this year on August 14. INDIA 15% of Tobacco Land Shifted to Other Crops Over the past three years, roughly 15% of land under tobacco cultivation in India has been shifted to other crops under the government's crop diversifica- tion program, which was implemented from 2015 to 2016. According to agriculture ministry figures, tobacco is grown in an area of about 450,000 hectares over 15 states, counting for less than 0.3% of India's arable land, with

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