Growers: Dialogues Needed to Address Declining Demand

Staff Report

Tobacco growers are urging governments to open a line of formal dialogues in order to promote discussion with governments and international bodies about the challenges the sector is facing due to a decrease in demand for tobacco products in the absence of viable alternative crops. Continued declines in the demand for tobacco products will lead some African countries to a drastic drop in employment and family income without a concerted effort to find alternatives for tobacco growers who, to this date, have not been guided toward viable solutions.

The plea was made at a meeting on June 14, 2017, organized by International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, bringing together the sector, political representatives, and tobacco farmers from other African tobacco growing countries, namely Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. At the opening of the Africa regional meeting, Dr. Jackson Nkuba, assistant director in Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture pointed out that “tobacco has been part of the worldwide agriculture for nearly six centuries” and that “in Tanzania, tobacco has been for years the most important traditional export crop.”

ITGA statistics reveal that tobacco is the top agricultural export in Tanzania in value and employs 1.45 million people in the tobacco supply chain. In Mozambique, tobacco has the highest monetary value per hectare when compared to other crops. In Malawi, tobacco represents 14% of its GDP and the industry employs almost 5 million people. Malawi is also the world’s leading exporter of burley tobacco. In Zimbabwe, tobacco generates 60% of foreign currency and 50% of Zimbabwe total agriculture GDP, employing almost 2 million people.

At the meeting, Nkuba also talked about WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), stressing that, “We as government can, and need to, encourage farmers to grow something else but we do know how difficult it is to create supply chains and add value crops in any given country, Tanzania included” Completing his speech, Nkuba reiterated that “tobacco production and use is still legitimate and we want to maintain this status quo for as long as we can…” “…we need the collaboration of all stakeholders in the value chain to ensure that tobacco production is environmentally sustainable”. Speaking at the opening of the forum, ITGA’s president, Daniel Green, said, “I want to highlight the enormous contribution of tobacco to these countries’ economies considering the difficult time some of them are going through. Tobacco has been, for decades, one of the main promoters of employment in these countries, and also one of the main income generators. We do not underestimate policies that aim to safeguard public health; the only thing we have been asking for many years now is to be part of the process that could lead tobacco growers towards a sustainable future without underestimating their precarious conditions. In Tanzania, tobacco employs 1.45 million people in the supply chain and tobacco leaf and related products represent 5% of Tanzania’s export revenue. In countries with high dependency on tobacco, as it is the case of most African tobacco growing countries, a proper plan needs to be put on the table and discussed among all the relevant stakeholders. Without this commitment, very little can be done to achieve benefits that seek to promote a sustainable future for tobacco growers and the region as a whole.”

Growers also insist on the need for tobacco growers’ representatives to participate in the process being carried out by WHO FCTC, which had a regional meeting also in Dar es Salaam coinciding with the ITGA meeting. FCTC discussed measures related with Articles 17 and18, which are directly linked to tobacco growers and tobacco production as it discusses issues concerning alternatives to tobacco growing and the social and environmental impact of tobacco growing. Once again, ITGA had asked for the participation of its local association in Tanzania, the Flue and Dark Tobacco Unions (FDTU), in this meeting but this petition was ignored and growers and their representatives were again left out of discussions concerning their future.

António Abrunhosa, ITGA c.e.o. stated, “We have come to a point where it is clear that the FCTC secretariat has exercised a veto to tobacco growers by ignoring their pleas. Unlike other UN agencies that engage in discussions with relevant stakeholders to discuss the best approach to reach their goals, FCTC underestimates one very important stakeholder in their discussions and the one most affected by their decisions; the tobacco growing communities”