Global market for tobacco has stabilised

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>

JTI invests $12m in tobacco industry

JACK ZIMBA, Lusaka THE world’s third largest tobacco company, Japan Tobacco International (JTI), has clearly found its niche in Zambia, four years after entering the market.

Since it set up shop in Zambia in 2011, the company now has about 7,000 farmers under its out-grower scheme in Eastern and Western provinces, with an investment portfolio of US$12 million.

It is not really the numbers that JTI is interested in, but rather in improving the quality of the tobacco it produces.

Hence, one of the major decisions the company made in the recent past was to integrate farming of tobacco into its business in order to influence the quality of the tobacco that ended up at its cigarette factories.

“Previously as JTI, our model is that we bought all our tobacco from dealers, companies like Alliance One and Universal Tobacco. We never had direct contact with our farmers,” says JTI Zambia general manager Mike Roach. Read More>

Convicted footballer who had cigar stubbed on eye by Joey Barton blames attack for downward spiral

A former footballer who had a cigar stubbed out on his eye by Joey Barton has been spared jail.

Ex-Man City player Jamie Tandy, 31, was given a suspended 18-month jail term after admitting assaulting his girlfiend.

He assaulted his partner Lisa Stewart, throttling and punching her in the face, along with throwing a mobile phone in her eye.

At a previous hearing at Manchester Crown Court, Tandy blamed his downward spiral on former teammate Barton, who stubbed a cigar out in his eye at Manchester City’s Christmas party in 2004.

The well-publicised incident resulted in “exceptionally talented” Tandy “being cast aside”, his lawyer claimed last December.

Joey Barton during his time at Queens Park Rangers. Photo: John Walton/PA Wire.

Darren Prescott, representing Tandy, told the court his client’s career went into freefall and he was eventually released from the Premier League giants and battled booze and gambling addictions.

He said Tandy lost his home and twice tried to commit suicide as he faced debts of up to £30,000. Read More>

Mary Landrieu lobbies for Jazz Fest

In her new role as a lobbyist, former senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has launched a Cuba practice.

Her first order of business?

Working with the New Orleans Jazz Fest in its quest to bring 150 Cuban musicians and artists to next year’s festivities.

“I’m a huge fan of Jazz Fest and I’m thrilled to have them as a client,” Landrieu said. “New Orleans has connections to Havana that are historic. It’s a natural fit for me as a former senator from Louisiana.”

Landrieu, a Democrat who lost her reelection bid in 2014 to Republican Bill Cassidy, joined the law firm Van Ness Feldman in 2015, where she is a lobbyist and policy adviser for corporate clients, including Noble Energy and Shell Oil.

Like many Washington lobbyists, she is also looking to take advantage of the Obama administration decision this year to begin normalizing relations with Cuba after decades of tense relations with the Cold War foe and she’s starting with an issue close to her roots. Read More>

Senate to debate tobacco regulations next week

Legislation that would raise the state's legal tobacco-purchasing age to 21, ban tobacco sales in pharmacies, and regulate e-cigarettes will be debated in the Massachusetts Senate next week, according to the Senate's top Democrat.

"The next big matter before the Senate will be raising the legal age to purchase cigarettes from 18 to 21, and also do some additional regulation on e-cigarettes, I think they're called," Senate President Stanley Rosenberg told the News Service on Tuesday.

Based on eight separate tobacco bills filed by House and Senate lawmakers this session, the Joint Committee on Public Health put together a bill (S 2152) dubbed "An Act to protect youth from the health risks of tobacco and nicotine addiction" that is now before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and is slated to hit the Senate floor in formal session on April 28.

State Sen. Jason Lewis, a Winchester Democrat who co-chairs the Public Health Committee, described the bill's three main provisions -- a three-year increase in the age for tobacco sales, a ban on sales in pharmacies, and the addition of e-cigarettes to the state's anti-smoking laws -- as "proven strategies for reducing nicotine addiction among young people." Read More>

Is It Inevitable That Big Tobacco Will Shift To Big Marijuana?

Four states and Washington, D.C., have already legalized recreational marijuana use, while medical marijuana use is currently legal (or about to become legal) in around 20 states — not to mention the many states that have decriminalized the drug. At the same time, tobacco use continues to decline and the few remaining cigarette giants can only merge with each other so many times. So is Big Tobacco destined to become Big Marijuana?

The tobacco industry, for all its feigned ignorance about the health hazards of its products, is not stupid and has been thinking about dabbling in marijuana since at least the 1960s.

“We are in the business of relaxing people who are tense and providing a pick up for people who are bored or depressed. The human needs that our product fills will not go away,” reads an internal Philip Morris memo from 1970, making the argument that pot could be hazardous, not to the moral fabric of America, but to the tobacco industry’s bottom line. “Thus, the only real threat to our business is that society will find other means of satisfying these needs.”

In the decades since, we’ve seen tobacco use plummet in the U.S., with fewer than 20% of adults smoking cigarettes — though smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death, according to the Surgeon General. Read More>

Tobacco Deliveries Increase By 98%

The tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) yesterday said flue-cured tobacco deliveries for the first 13 days have increased by 98 percent this season compared to the same period last year, while sales are up by 124 percent.

By April 19th ot this year, some 14.5 million kg of tobacco had gone under the hammer fetching $36.5 million for farmers compared to 7.2 million kg valued at $16.2 million sold for the same period last year.

The golden leaf was sold for an average price of $2.53/kg, 13 percent more than $2.23/kg recorded for the same period last year.

Of the total deliveries, total auction sales stood at 3.8 million kg valued at $7.2 million, while contracts sales were 10.6 kg at about $29.2 million.

Refected bales in the week stood at 7.5 percent of the total 47 percent down from the 14.3 percent rejected prior comparable period. Total bales laid stood at 191 274 up 107.2 percent from the 107 719 recorded for the same period last year.

Bales sold were up 64.2 percent from 92 281 to 176 910 during the week under review, as the highest price for the week was 21 percent lower than the $6.25 recorded prior year at $5.60.

The lowest price offered for the leaf remained flat at $0.10 with the weight of the average bale up three percent to 82kg from 79kg. Read More>