Domestic cigarette manufacturers led by ITC Limited have come to the rescue of tobacco farmers in Andhra Pradesh during the current year by procuring more quantity of flue cured tobacco (FCT) than what they needed so as to stabilise the falling prices.
Around 50,000 tobacco farmers in the state are stated to have been benefitted by the supporting role played by ITC, Godfrey Phillips India (GPI) and VST. Ream more »
Tobacco growers are opposing any move to reduce the crop size for the coming season. They met Tobacco Board executive director Ch Subba Rao in the light of the Indian Tobacco Association (ITA) sending a proposal to the board suggesting cut in the crop size.
The ITA had recently written to the board to reduce the crop size to 121.55 million kg for the 2011-12 season as against the 165 million kg permitted for 2010-11. ITA president Bellam Kotaiah informed the board that the tobacco prices in the international market had declined forcing the ITA to bring down the prices and slash the purchase volume. Ream more »
The tobacco growers have said that their hard earned labour was going up in smoke due to the exploitation of the tobacco companies and the apathy of the local bureaucracy that fixes the rates of the commodity.
The Pakistan Tobacco Board has fixed the price of the commodity below its cost of production, Ikramullah Khan, president of the representative body of the growers, the Anjuman-e-Kashtkaran Tobacco Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said in its meeting held the other day at Charsadda.
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Over P220 million worth of production assistance will be provided by the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) to tobacco farmers so they plant rice during the rainy season.
NTA administrator Edgardo D. Zaragoza said the program will boost the drive to become self-sufficient in rice 2013. Zaragoza recently distributed checks to 1,484 farmer co-operators in La Union, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Abra and Mindoro who are scheduled to plant rice in over 1,242 hectares of land previously planted to tobacco. Ream more »
In October, in chaotic Mexico City, a small army of protestors, sporting placards and shouting into bullhorns, worsened the usual traffic snarl around San Lazaro, the nation’s congressional office complex. Television news accounts showed screaming-mad tobacco farmers, some of whom had boarded buses and traveled 500 miles to warn federal legislators that new taxes on cigarettes would put them out of business.
Inside, lawmakers were in a tug-of-war over a landmark excise tax law that eventually added about 50 cents to a pack of cigarettes and — anti-tobacco activists hoped — would make tobacco less attractive to consumers. Ream more »
Several Kentucky farmers have filed a class-action lawsuit against a leading tobacco merchant they say failed to honor contracts to purchase burley tobacco from them at the end of the 2010 crop year.
Now some of the farmers say they would rather leave the business than gamble on tobacco.
The lawsuit, which was filed against Universal Leaf North America last week in Harrison Circuit Court, says hundreds of farmers have lost what amounts to millions. Ream more »
As domestic cigarette consumption and production declines, local farmers hope overseas demand will enable them to grow more tobacco, but they worry if they’ll get the price they need to cover their expenses.
About 165 people attended the annual flue-cured tobacco production meeting at Chatham High School on Thursday night.
Many farmers talked about the possibility of a firm contracting 100 million pounds of flue-cured tobacco for China.
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TOBACCO Industry and Marketing Board chief executive Dr Andrew Matibiri has assured tobacco farmers that there will be enough hessian bags and tobacco wrapping paper for this year’s tobacco whose harvesting has just started in some provinces.
Dr Matibiri said suppliers of the hessian bags and wrapping paper were importing the material, but was quick to add that this would not affect their capacity to meet demand. Ream more »
It’s been years since John Dunlap started growing burley tobacco again in his Loudon County farm.
But this year may not have been the best year to start growing the popular East Tennessee crop.
“It’s been dry this summer, we didn’t get but about half we expected from the tobacco,” said Dunlap.
Dunlap is about to sell 66 bales of tobacco, but he expected more than 120 bales going into the harvesting season. Ream more »
Nine tobacco producing regencies in Central Java are lobbying the government to influence proposed anti-smoking regulations, according to Temanggung Regent Hasyim Afandi.
“It’s not a political move. We just want to protect tobacco farmers. I’ve talked to Magelang and Wonosobo Regents. They agreed. The others will follow,” Hasyim said after joining a mass prayer attended by about 10,000 tobacco farmers at Temanggung Square on Saturday. Read more