Featured Articles

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 harvest of around 40-45,000 tons. AOI exports about 20,000 tons and TTM takes the rest.

In Indonesia’s burgeoning and colorful kretek culture, there is no more iconic or innovative company than Djarum.

Djarum has been at the forefront of kretek manufacture and design since 1951, when 10 people started rolling the first Djarum kretek on the floor of a humble workshop in Kudus, the country’s kretek capital, under the hands-on tutelage of the company’s founder, Oei Wie Gwan.

Djarum (the word refers to a gramophone needle) were consistently crafted with skill and passion, and the blend of cloves and tobacco became popular on the streets of Kudus, where Gwan could be found selling his wares.

Dickinson Fowler (DF) is an Indian manufacturer of high quality, good value tobacco processing equipment whose products can be found in primary and green leaf processing plants throughout Asia and beyond. Formed in 1965 as John Fowler India Ltd., the company was originally focused on manufacturing tobacco and tea machinery and road construction equipment. Latterly it concentrated on tea and tobacco machinery only.

In 1998, the company entered into a 50/50 joint venture agreement with Dickinson Legg of UK which is presently a subsidiary of Garbuio S.p.a. Italy. The group commands over 50% market share of the global PMD (primary manufacturing department) segment. Dickinson Fowler is a direct descendant of Legg, which was founded in 1886, and claims to be the oldest surviving company in the tobacco industry (together with Tobacco Asia’s sister publication Tobacco International which was also founded in 1886...Ed)

With the approach of yet another busy season of leaf tobacco harvesting in China, the tobacco monopoly administrative authorities in coordination with state-run tobacco companies are intensifying efforts to crack down on continuing rampant nationwide illegal trade of leaf tobacco.

In China, tobacco is a government monopoly, and Chinese law provides for the system of state monopoly over tobacco trade. Accordingly, the state levies heavy taxes on the tobacco industry. In particular, the leaf tobacco tax earned from major tobacco-growing regions contributes significantly to the financial revenues of local governments.

PROTOS-M5 at full throttle

To meet the demands of the market, Hauni is now also offering its trusted PROTOS-M5 twin-rod cigarette maker with a 14,000 CPM capacity

The highest level of cigarette production reliability with consistent quality and low production costs – the PROTOS-M5 should offer all these advantages at a speed of 14,000 cpm.

BAT’s recent acquisition of Bentoel has piqued the interest of many in the industry, but as of now, the impact has generally yet to be felt as BAT carefully considers its strategy.

During this assessment period, no, or relatively minor changes, are expected in Bentoel’s day-to-day activities until BAT has thoroughly examined al its options. However, there is a palpable mood of excitement at Bentoel’s corporate headquarters these days: a sense of optimism pervades the atmosphere. There is no question that BAT’s takeover of the company is welcomed by Bentoel’s executives as they see the benefits of working with an established and highly competent international player, one that, most importantly, is second-to-none in it understanding of and competitiveness in the cigarette industry.

Along with rapid development of China’s tobacco industry, continued formation of big competitive cigarette brand families and further improvement of tobacco varieties, the demand for high-quality cigarette fragrance and flavor has kept growing over recent years, creating broad prospects for future development of the business of cigarette fragrance and flavor production in China.

Along with continued progress in the development of new technologies for enhancing functionality of cigarette filters and lowering the tar content, some amazing new types of filters are emerging, some of which have been utilized in new cigarette products in China over recent years.

High-end cigarette manufacturers are using some uniquely functional and creative filters with powerful utilities, including the vertical multiple circular column filter, the Taiji composite filter and the multi-layer network filter, all effective in reducing the content of tar and other harmful substances in cigarette smoke, also contribute to anti-counterfeiting efforts and delivering more fragrance cigarette smoke.

BMJ has established itself as the primary supplier of high quality paper and packaging solutions to the Indonesian industry as well overseas markets such as Vietnam. It has invested heavily in state-of-the-art equipment and quality control system. The company’s second line opened recently, a state-of-the-art paper mill producing consistently high quality products it supplies to most of the major players in the global markets. It has been at the forefront of developments in light kretek and other fast-growing segments in domestic and overseas markets. The company’s growth has been steady and dynamic as it has moved at its own pace to develop and refine its products and processes.

Chinese cigarette paper manufacturers, facing pressure from all sides as well as the lingering impacts of recession stemming from the global financial crisis, are striving for development by adopting various means, mainly including the reduction of costs and intensification of efforts to enter international markets.

After the last two years of escalating returns to India’s tobacco farmers as prices soared to record highs – and then continued to climb – its hardly surprising that India is recording its largest tobacco crop ever in 2010.

It is estimated that this year Indian tobacco farmers will produce 420 million kg of tobacco – of which flue-cured Virginia will account for about 350 million kg. Burley production ranks second, followed by other air-cured and sun-cured varieties and around 5 million kg of oriental tobacco.