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· Business (Tobacco)
non-USA, by Country
· Mozambique
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Jump to full article: All-Africa.com, 2006-05-19
Author: Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
Intro: The tobacco giant Alliance One is pulling out of Mozambique in 2007, reports Friday's issue of the independent weekly "Savana".
Alliance One was formed out of a merger between the US-based companies Dimon and Stancom, both of whom held concessions in the Mozambican provinces of Niassa, Tete and Manica. They provided peasant tobacco growers with inputs, and purchased their crop.
The reason for the Alliance One decision to withdraw is that the most productive tobacco concession, in the Tete district of Chifunde was taken from Dimon in 2005, and given instead to Mozambique Leaf Tobacco (MLT), a subsidiary of the US Universal Leaf Africa Company.
Although "Savana" finds the government decision to switch the concession from Dimon to MLT "strange", the reason is extremely clear. The government wants tobacco processing to happen in Mozambique, and so urged the concessionary companies to build processing plants. Only MLT responded, and has built the second largest processing plant in Africa in Tete City. Its reward was the Chifunde concession.
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