Tobacco Asia

tobaccoasia 61 Tobacco Asia The ONLY magazine written and edited for the Asia regional tobacco industry. Read and trusted by industry professionals around the world. Subscribe to Subscribe Now to Tobacco Asia and get a complete view of the tobacco industry. Rates 1 year $45 2 years $80 3 years $105 Published 5 times a year in full English and Chinese versions. To subscribe visit: tobaccoasia.com or email info@octobermultimedia.com October Inter Co. Ltd. Interchange 21 Bldg., Room 3225, 32nd Fl. 399 Sukhumvit Road, North Klong Toey Wattana, Bangkok, 10110 THAILAND Tel +66 2 660 3789. Fax +66 2 660 3881 www.tobaccoasia.com. in order to achieve this, growers need to be paid a fair price allowing them to cover their costs with a reasonable profit margin. Steve Swanenpol, the current president of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA), talking about the shared agenda between FCTC and UN agencies against tobacco, stated, " At a phase, like the one we are going through, where the market is showing signs of ambiguity, where our insecurity increases by the lack of reliable information or simply by the misinfor- mation we are subject to and, where leg- islation keeps ignoring real facts that only we, growers, acknowledge by being in the field, we surely have to stand together to make a strong statement. This statement has to put granularity on the information spread about our sector and put us on the right places talking to the right people to stop, once and for all, this absurd trend launched by the World Health Organiza- tion Framework Convention on Tobacco Control many years ago, to exclude us from everything that has to do with us, tobacco, its cultivation, and the survival of the people living on it." "If the FCTC secretariat on its sum- mary of the global meeting celebrated last year in Tanzania regarding imple- mentation of article 17&18 (social and environmental impact of tobacco production), complained about the lack of inclusion of the FCTC secretariat on tobacco control committees which sovereignty resides in countries, we too, complain, this time to our governments, for the lack of participation of tobacco growers' associations in matters as important as the ones included in articles 17&18." FCTC recently published the result of a survey developed in the two main tobacco- growing regions in Zimbabwe. On this regard ITGA c.e.o., Antonio Abrunhosa, said, "After 10 years and much insistence from our side trying to collaborate by providing FCTC and NGOs working on the guidelines for articles 17&18, with our experience and knowledge, a proper report has come out, commissioned by FCTC and corrobo- rating everything we have been saying during all these years. I do not know if it is ap- propriate to congratulate them for wasting so much time and money before concluding what has been out there to see for everyone who did not have FCTC's ideological bias. "I will certainly congratulate the people in charge of carrying this pilot project for the impartial way they have treated the information gathered in two big tobacco-grow- ing regions in Zimbabwe. First, for acknowledging the fact that at this point there is no viable alternative to tobacco but diversification is possible and desirable; second, for recognizing the socio-economic impact of tobacco and the high rates of employment involved in the tobacco value chain; and third for clarifying tobacco growers good agriculture practices, which include crop rotation and food security measures and, last but not least, for explaining why tobacco growers grow tobacco instead of other crops. "The report also covered, wisely, the challenges affecting our sector like deforesta- tion, which in the case of Zimbabwe is certainly a high point of concern. If this prob- lem is not approached in a holistic way, we could be facing very soon its devastating effects and I am sure, we are here, to discuss these issues and again to offer our help in whatever initiative is found to tackle this problem. And, obviously, those who benefit most in this industry, manufacturing and trading companies must find ways to make sure that the growers' income allows them to pay for a legal hired labor and to use sustainable curing sources." The TUTWA Study is available on www.tobaccoleaf.org.

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