Tobacco Asia

56 tobaccoasia LEAF NEWS 烟叶新闻 We'd like to let you in on an industry secret You can view the latest issue of TOBACCO ASIA magazine and TOBACCO ASIA's archived issues and searchable content at www.tobaccoasia.com All free. No passwords. No paywall. Just click and read. The province had planned to plant 11,200 hectares before the hurricane, but the area won't be able to accomplish even half of that. So far, only 5,150 hectares (about 12,726 acres) have been planted. Approximately 4,000 curing barns will be needed to harvest this much leaf, but only 1,400 have been constructed so far. The government-owned tobacco corporation Tabacuba stated in the report that it would prioritize the highest quality crop in order to ensure sufficient output for the crucial export industry. The faltering planting season makes matters worse as Cuba's economy continues to struggle, burdened in part by a sluggish rebound in its vital tourism sector and severe US sanctions put in place under the former White House administration. High Fertilizer Costs Can't Deter Zimbabwe's Crops Zimbabwe's tobacco crop grew in size despite higher fertilizer costs brought on by the conflict in Ukraine. At the official opening of this year's selling season, officials stated that Zimbabwe anticipates harvesting 230 million kilograms (254,000 tons) of the golden leaf this season, up from 212 million kilograms (234,000 tons) last year. Zimbabwe currently aims to increase the profitability of its tobacco sector by increasing domestic cigarette production and reducing farmer finance from abroad. According to Patrick Devenish, chairman of the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board, the war in Ukraine had a negative impact on Zimbabwe's tobacco farmers "quite badly because it happened at the time we were planting our crop, so we did pay more for fertilizer than we should have." Devenish explained the increase in production by attribut- ing it to the fact that more farmers are growing the crop this year, up from approximately 123,000 farmers last season to about 150,000 this season. According to Devenish, the amount of land used to cultivate tobacco went from 110,000 hectares (272,000 acres) to 118,000 hectares (about 292,000 acres). Vice president Constantino Chiwenga said the government would provide growers a US$60 million advance during the upcoming growing season as part of a plan to restructure the tobacco industry that aims to increase local support for the crop from the current 5% to 70% by 2025. According to Chiwenga, the nation anticipates increasing annual harvests to 300 million kilograms (331,000 tons) by that time. To increase value-added exports, Zimbabwe plans to process, blend, and produce cigarettes from 30% of the crop by 2025 under the same strategy, according to Chiwenga. Only 2% of the crop is currently made into cigarettes locally. Karnataka Farmers Push for Policy Inclusion The Federation of Karnataka Virginia Tobacco Growers' Associations urged various political parties in Karnataka to include policies for farmers' welfare in their respective manifes- toes ahead of the coming assembly elections. The request follows anti-tobacco activists' call for tobacco control strategies. Following meetings with farmers in different tobacco- growing regions throughout Karnataka, Federation President Javare Gowda has attempted to draw political parties' attention to the issues facing these farmers due to the increase in the availability of smuggled and illegal cigarettes as well as the 'excessive' taxation on cigarettes. Due to severe rainfall, unseasonal rains, rising cultivation costs, changes in the worldwide market, the illegal cigarette trade, and high taxes, tobacco farmers in Karnataka were only able to produce 60 million kilograms of produce in 2022 as opposed to the permitted crop size of 100 million kilograms. About 70% of the tobacco produced in Karnataka is exported to 120 different countries, bringing in about INR*30 billion in valuable foreign exchange each year. Vikramraj Urs, the secretary of the Federation, made the point that the interests of Indian tobacco farmers and agricul- tural workers are affected by the fact that Indian tobacco is not used in smuggled cigarettes. He asserted that a decline in production from 325 million kg in 2014–15 to fewer than 200 million kg in 2022–23 resulted in commercial losses for the flue-cured virginia (FCV) tobacco growing community of over INR70 billion. *US$1.00 = INR82.72

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