Even as tobacco farmers kept their fingers crossed due to domestic market uncertainty following imposition of larger pictorial warning on cigarette packs during the middle of the marketing season, International Tobacco Growers’ Association Executive Antonio Abrunhosa opined that “the market may not be worse this year in view of the stable global demand for tobacco.”
The tobacco sector was gripped by crisis last year, the worst-ever since the crop holiday in the year 2000, forcing farmers to commit suicide.
The global market for the principal cash crop stabilised, said the ITGA chief from Portugal, who interacted with farmers in the traditional tobacco growing areas in Prakasam district.
The reduction in demand for tobacco in the U.S. and other countries was not much as in the previous years, he said.
“The pace of the slowdown has come down in the U.S.,” he pointed out, and added that there was a fall in production to the tune of 30 million kg in Zimbabwe, which exported 90 per cent of its produce to other countries.
“The inhibiting factor is the excessive health regulations,” he said, referring to domestic manufacturers stopping production from April 1, afraid of the implications of the 85 per cent pictorial warning on cigarette packs on the sale.
The health regulations and heavy dose of taxes on legal cigarettes gave a boost to contraband cigarettes, he argued. Read More>
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