Thailand’s tobacco crop caters primarily to its domestic market. Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (TTM), which is a state-owned arm of the Ministry of Finance, controls over 70% of the retail cigarette market and buys much of the domestically produced FCV for its manufacturing requirements.

But several thousand tons of burley and oriental tobacco are also produced for export. Thai tobacco exports used to be stronger in the days when there were over 10 exporters, but because of convergence and consolidation, there are now far fewer players.

Three companies dominate the leaf tobacco export industry in Thailand: Alliance One International (AOI), Premium Tobacco (who’s Thai operations were featured in this magazine in 2006) and Adams International Limited (AIL), who are partnered with AOI. Premium concentrates on burley, handling around 8,000 tons annually from a total burley har...

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