Tobacco.org

• KRASOVSKY: Does tobacco industry need to be saved? 

Tobacco tax increases are the most effective way to encourage people to stop smoking.

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, citing concern for the tobacco industry, on Nov. 11 vetoed legislation that would have hiked the excise tax on tobacco products once more.

It is worth remembering that - even though tobacco excise taxes were increased in September 2008, and again in February and May of this year - cigarette prices in Ukraine remain among the lowest in Europe. This leads directly to a public health catastrophe for the nation and creates conditions for rampant smuggling of made-in-Ukraine cigarettes to other nations. . . .

However, tobacco companies in Ukraine claimed that this tax increase would have been disastrous for their business. . . .

Transnational tobacco companies came to Ukraine in 1993. They promised employment, investment and revenue. Now they control 99 percent of the tobacco production in Ukraine. In 1992, Ukraine produced 9,000 tons of tobacco leaves. However, despite huge increases in cigarette production, tobacco growing has almost disappeared in the country. In 1996-2008, the foreign trade balance of tobacco leaves and products was negative for Ukraine and totaled more than $2 billion. It actually means that Ukrainian smokers invested $2 billion in the economies of other nations.

What tobacco companies actually produce is death. . . .

Many politicians in Ukraine already understand that high tobacco taxes are good both for public health and public revenues. I hope that the current and future president of Ukraine will understand this as well.

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• CORCORAN: Ottawa's fruit-flavoured tobacco bomb 

The result was Bill C-32, officially titled The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act -- a misnomer if ever there was one. Today, a year later, what Mr. Harper's Conservatives have delivered instead is an over-the-top law that threatens a global trade war and another bonanza for Canada's already out-of-control contraband cigarette market.

The trade-war potential gathered momentum earlier this month when, according to Inside US Trade, the United States joined Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, the European Union and other nations in opposition to Ottawa's new anti-bubble-gum tobacco law. At a meeting in Geneva, the nations said Canada's law would restrict trade in regular tobacco products to the benefit of Canadian tobacco producers.

The more immediate impact of the law, however, is a ban on the sale in Canada of virtually all brands of U.S. cigarettes. Guess where that leads? The logical result of a ban on legal imports of Marlboros and Winstons is new demand for illegal supplies through the burgeoning Native-dominated contraband market, a tax-evading multi-billion-dollar industry that already accounts for between 33% to 50% of the Canadian cigarette market. . . .

While this may look like another case of unintended consequences run amok, it more likely is part of deliberate scheming by Health Canada officials and others who are consciously using fruit-flavoured smokes to create a global tobacco trade bomb against the U.S. and tobacco industries in Europe, South America and Asia. . . .

Still, Bill C-32 became law, even though Senator Segal abstained over the trade issue. As a result, Mr. Harper's opportunistic election gimmick, aimed at curbing the use of flavoured tobacco to children, will do nothing to protect children. By further enhancing the power and scope of the contraband market, it will only increase the supply of illegal cigarettes, a prime source of tobacco to the young. At the same time, the government has launched a protectionist scheme that threatens a trade conflict.

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QUARLES: Administration must confront Canada on burley tobacco ban 

The Canadian government has enacted a law that could endanger the entire burley tobacco industry. U.S. tobacco growers need President Barack Obama and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to ensure that the Canadians honor their trade obligations and that other countries do not follow Canada’s lead in banning American blend cigarettes.

The Canadian government’s hypocrisy on trade is startling. Less than a month after Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Washington to lecture President Obama about the dangers of “Buy American” laws, his government passed a “Buy Canada” tobacco ban that violates Canada’s World Trade Organization (WTO) responsibilities.

The legislation, C-32, was intended to ban candy-flavored tobacco products, a worthy goal that U.S. burley growers share.

Unfortunately, C-32 morphed into an overreaching piece of legislation that prohibits the manufacture or sale of blended cigarettes that contain burley tobacco. This outcome is especially troublesome because American blend cigarettes are not candy-flavored in any way. . . .

At a time when so many sectors of the American economy are suffering, it is wrong for the burley tobacco industry to fall victim to an overreaching foreign law that violates the standards of free and fair trade. It is incumbent on USTR to send a strong message to Canada and other countries that banning blended cigarettes that contain burley tobacco is unacceptable and unnecessary to achieve the goal of reducing youth smoking.

-- Quarles is president of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association

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• Florida Students Rally for Tobacco Workers 

Students at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) spent last Saturday morning raising their voices for justice for tobacco workers. Chanting�"Justice now!" and holding signs that read "Hasta la Victoria" ("Onward to Victory"), dozens of students marched and rallied on UF's Gainesville campus.

The students joined members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the National Farm Worker Ministry to demand justice for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina who suffer low wages and poor working conditions at the hands of Big Tobacco.

The rally followed a UF Student Senate resolution calling for a pay increase and better treatment of Immokalee farm workers, who pick the tomatoes used by Aramark, UF's food provider. "Somebody's got to fight for social justice," said UF junior Justin Wooten.

The students and activists wanted to send a message to Susan Ivey, CEO of Reynolds American, the parent of R.J. Reynolds, the nation's second-largest tobacco company. Ivey has refused to meet with FLOC members

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• Tobacco poison surrounds child workers  

The children pick through mountainous piles of waste tobacco and sweep it up with their bare hands into giant bags in the hope of scraping a living. From behind a veil of dust, they stare back at us with bloodshot eyes.

As the wind gathers in a fading dusk, infant siblings strapped to their mothers' backs wail amid swirling, noxious clouds of tobacco.

Beyond them, a parched maize plantation stretches into the distance towards the factory buildings of Alliance One, the world's largest tobacco processor and the source of up to 30% of the premium tobacco enjoyed by Britain's 13m smokers.

A Sunday Times investigation in the southern African state of Malawi has uncovered an environmental travesty that is being inflicted by the tobacco industry on some of the continent's poorest people.Downstream from the tobacco processing plants that dominate the outskirts of Lilongwe, the Malawian capital, rivers run yellow and green from industrial outflow -- water used for bathing by villagers who have no other option.

Even more alarming, however, is that in a community already plagued by Aids, cholera, malnutrition and one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, toxic tobacco waste is being dumped by contractors in open landfill sites where hundreds of children are picking through the remnants. . . .

This weekend a spokesman for the American-owned Alliance One said the company would build a wall round the landfill site to keep out children. He said: "We believe that we meet all environmental and other regulatory requirements in Malawi, but we are happy to work further with local authorities to further safeguard children from exposure at the municipal disposal site."

Few benefits from the tobacco industry filter down to Malawi's poor tobacco farmers who eke out a hopeless existence on less than 80p a day.

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Road leads to the increase of the horizon - the visit to Lu Feng modern tobacco agriculture (I) 

"Off smoke doors" is the Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, although not a grand ceremony in the countryside, but has a very significant "major farming." The end of each township within the meaning of flue-cured tobacco purchase date. For flue-cured tobacco growing county Lufeng, every year, the Road "smoke doors" "off" that they will have a direct impact on the county's financial and income of the farmers. Late autumn, when the reporter went to Lufeng, when, where and the "End of smoke doors closed," concluded the acquisition of the ten-mile eight villages flue-cured tobacco everywhere exudes the flavor of a good harvest.

Lufeng kinds of tobacco has a long history of good-quality tobacco is the main producing areas, 43.7 million mu this year

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Alternate crops for tobacco farmers: Trivedi 

Reiterating the Government's commitment on tobacco control, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dinesh Trivedi said it was working on rehabilitation of beedi workers, who could be rendered jobless, and creating alternative cropping systems to wean away tobacco farmers to other crops.

Noting that the biggest challenge to taking forward tobacco control measures came from beedi rolling industry and tobacco farming, he said his Ministry has started consultations with Rural Development Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry to address the issue.

With the Rural Development Ministry, consultations have begun to introduce projects and schemes for self-help groups under Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana and with the Agriculture Ministry, the endeavour was aimed at developing alternative cropping systems to enable tobacco farmers to move to other crops.

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Alliance One International Reports Further Improvement in Second Quarter 

Robert E. Harrison, Chief Executive Officer, said, "Volume, sales and margins this quarter were improved versus last year and met our expectations. Improvements were achieved in what continues to be a very fluid environment with costs increasing in many markets, a US dollar that has begun to weaken again and implementation of certain manufacturer security of supply strategies that provide challenges as well as opportunities. Continued strong customer support and the positive impact of cost containment initiatives are key elements to our strategic plan execution.

"To better position ourselves in this operating environment, we have continued to focus on enhancing our capabilities to deliver specialized services and value-added products. As such, I am pleased to announce that we have just received six US Patent Office "Notices of Allowance" for three lower alkaloid variety burley tobaccos, developed over an eight year period utilizing conventional plant breeding methods at our R&D facility in Brazil. We originally reported these new varieties in November 2007, which further reinforces our commitment to the industry's ongoing research to develop new products. We believe these new varieties retain the desirable leaf quality, grower yields and smoking characteristics typical of existing Brazilian burley tobaccos and we have now started commercial production. Also, on November 6th, we announced commencing work on a new 70 million kilo factory in the Brazilian State of Santa Catarina that will be operational for processing the 2011 crop. Our new factory will place processing closer to this key growing area, establish additional needed storage and meet our investment objectives.

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Princkly pears and tobacco are farmed in drylands to produce bio-ethanol 

The TBF (Technology-based Firm) Almeria Albaida Recursos Naturales y Medioambiente, S.A. (Spain), and the Cajamar Foundation participate in the national project for Research and Development of Ethanol for Automotive Applications (I+DEA). The purpose of this team of experts relies in the study and testing of the feasibility of two crops adapted to extreme environmental conditions - prickly-pears and tobacco tree - for the production of bio‑ethanol in semiarid areas where there is no competition for the use of raw materials for food purposes or for farmland.

In particular, the tasks of the Almeria scientists are embodied in the sub-project of Energy crops for use in current technologies for bio-ethanol production, focusing on research of bio-ethanol production alternatives in semiarid areas. There, the experts are involved in the research and testing of the feasibility of the prickly-pear (Opuntia ficus indica) and the tobacco tree (Nicotiana glauca). These two species are perfectly adapted to conditions of extreme water shortage and at the same time these plants have high energy biomass due to the fermentation process of their organic matter.

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Alliance One Announces Arrangements for Fiscal Year 2010 2nd Quarter Financial 

Alliance One International, Inc. (NYSE: AOI) today announced that it will hold a conference call to report financial results for its fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2009, on November 9, 2009 at 5:00 P.M. ET. Those seeking to listen to the call may access a live broadcast on the Alliance One website. Please visit www.aointl.com fifteen minutes in advance to register.

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SCOR; More Money For Tobacco Farmers 

The South Central Ontario Region - or SCOR for short - is happy to announce the Federal Government has launched the Sand Plains Community Development Fund. It's a 15 million dollar program that will help Brant, Elgin, Middlesex, Oxford and Norfolk Counties make the transition out of tobacco.

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Malawi tobacco sales drop nine percent: official  

Sales of Malawi’s main cash crop tobacco dropped nine percent to 433 million dollars (293 million euros) this year, as prices at the auction floor fell by nearly a quarter, the country’s crop watchdog said Wednesday.

“The tobacco market suffered some price setbacks and average prices were down by 23 percent per kilo this year,” Bruce Munthali, general manager of the Tobacco Control Commission, told reporters.

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• N.C. court rules against tobacco payments 

Maryland tobacco farmers won't receive about $13 million in payments from cigarette manufacturers under a ruling Friday from the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Officials with the Maryland Department of Agriculture said the state had sought to require that Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. honor an agreement to compensate farmers for the declining sales of tobacco expected from a settlement between the tobacco industry and states over the health care costs of smoking.

"Our farmers have been done a big injustice," said Patrick McMillan, assistant agriculture secretary. "The source of income they were led to believe they were going to get has been taken away from them."

The case stemmed from a disagreement over whether the manufacturers were obligated to continue paying farmers under that agreement after Congress approved in 2004 a $10 billion buyout for tobacco farmers nationally, to be financed by taxing the cigarette industry.

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• Stopping tobacco production not solution to increasing cancer cases 

The government told the National Assembly that it is going to continue supporting tobacco farming despite the increase of cancer cases caused by cigarette smoking since that is not the solution to the problem.

The Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives, Dr Mathayo David Mathayo said that one of the factors for not stopping the production is that 85% of all tobacco produced in the country is exported, thus only the remaining 15 is consumed in the county.

"Tobacco farming and production employs 1.3 per cent of population, which is equal to 500,000 Tanzanians and their families depending on the crop for their livehoods," explained Dr Mathayo.

However, the deputy minister acknowledged that cigarette smoking has both long term and short term effects, saying that it is the reason for restrictions in cigarette advertising, health warning on the packets and not allowing it to be sold for persons under 18 years.

"I cannot choose between the economic advantages of tobacco production and the health effects that cigarette smokers get, but the precautions and warnings ensure that those using the product know its effects and are all adults, thus have the ability to make decision for themselves," he said.

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Malawi tobacco sales 'drop 9%' 

Sales of Malawi's main cash crop tobacco dropped nine percent to 433 million dollars (293 million euros) this year, as prices at the auction floor fell by nearly a quarter, the country's crop watchdog said Wednesday.

"The tobacco market suffered some price setbacks and average prices were down by 23 percent per kilo this year," Bruce Munthali, general manager of the Tobacco Control Commission, told reporters.

Despite a record harvest of 208 million kilos of burley tobacco, average prices dropped to 1.86 dollars per kilo, from 2.42 dollars last year, he said..

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