Provincial Tobacco Industry Meets on Tobacco Production, Sales for 2010

Source from:  Tobaccochina Online 12/30/2009

The tobacco industry of south central China's Hunan Province held in the provincial capital city of Changsha on December 26 a meeting on tobacco production and sales for the year 2010, proposing that steps be taken to strictly control the scope of tobacco production, significantly improve the quality of tobacco products, and promote the development of a modern tobacco agriculture in Hunan to a higher level on a full scale. It was announced at the meeting that in 2010, the tobacco industry of Hunan will accelerate the development of a modern tobacco agriculture in the province on the basis of success achieved in 2009, shift tobacco production in Hunan onto a new model, better regulate management over tobacco production on a full scale, and fully promote tobacco production in the province to a higher level. In the whole of 2009, the tobacco industry of Hunan is expected to earn 36.3 billion yuan (5.19 billion U.S. dollars) in annual sales income, including 5 billion yuan (715 million U.S. dollars) in taxes, and 4.6 billion yuan (658 billion U.S. dollars) in profits, which will mean overfulfillment of the relevant targets set by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the provincial government of Hunan, according to the meeting. The meeting concluded that in 2009, leaf tobacco production in Hunan in general was obviously promoted to a high level, with the unit output of leaf tobacco reaching 3.27 dan per mu (163.5 kilograms per 0.067 hectare), up 12.7 percent year-on-year; that the average leaf tobacco purchase price reached 718.26 yuan per dan (102.6 U.S. dollars per 50 kilograms), up 0.9 percent year-on-year; and that the unit output value of leaf tobacco production reached 2,348.7 yuan per mu (336 U.S. dollars per 0.067 hectare), up 9.44 percent year-on-year. In 2009, the tobacco industry of Hunan made substantive progress in the construction of infrastructure facilities for tobacco production, with investment in the development of infrastructure facilities for tobacco production in the province reaching 752 million yuan (108 million U.S. dollars), including 592 million yuan (85 million U.S. dollars) extended by the provincial tobacco industry alone, according to the meeting. In 2009, the tobacco industry of Hunan built 41,178 infrastructure projects for tobacco production across the province, covering 268,000 mu (17,867 hectares) of tobacco-growing farmland. Also in the year, the provincial tobacco industry newly built extensive curing barns for 175,000 mu (25,000 hectares) of tobacco-growing farmland, benefiting 72,800 tobacco-growing rural households. These positive developments have contributed to paving the way for the development of a modern tobacco agriculture in Hunan. Enditem