Grower Prices Down But Subsidies Increased

Source from:  tobaccoreporter.com China, Monday, March 5, 2007 03/07/2007

The average grower price paid for leaf tobacco in China last year fell by 3.3 per cent to Yuan10.04 per kg, mainly due to quality problems caused by unhelpful weather in a number of growing regions, according to a report on Tobacco China Online. All of the major tobacco-growing regions, with the exception of Liaoning, Shandong, Guangxi, Fujian and Yunnan, saw their leaf prices decline. The tobacco monopoly authorities increased subsidies for tobacco growers by an average of 18.2 per cent to Yuan162.18 per mu (0.067 ha), but, despite this, tobacco-grower income declined by 4.4 per cent from Yuan947.69 per mu during 2005 to Yuan905.58 per mu last year. Nevertheless, income from tobacco was said to have remained significantly higher than that from the production of cereals, edible oil, cotton and other crops. Leaf tobacco yields last year, at about 2,003 kg per ha, remained similar to those of 2005, but production costs rose 4.6 per cent to Yuan610.29 per mu due to increases in spending on chemical fertilizers, mechanized farming operations, fuel, seeds and insurance premiums. These figures came out of a survey conducted earlier this year among 1,129 tobacco growers operating in 117 counties of 14 major tobacco-growing regions across China, including the provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Henan, Hunan and Fujian. Conditions varied widely last year. The tobacco-growing regions of Henan, Fujian, Sichuan, Shandong, Liaoning and Jilin enjoyed relatively fine weather and, accordingly, increased yields. But Guizhou, Chongqing and Shaanxi were hit by severe weather, including droughts and hailstorms, and here yields dropped by 9.6 per cent, 12.7 per cent and 17.4 per cent respectively. And yields dropped to a lesser extent, too, in Yunnan, Hunan, Hubei, Heilongjiang and Guangxi. Enditem