Tobacco Growers in Southwest China See Steady Growth of Income

Source from:  Sichuan Daily newspaper 11/19/2007

Tobacco growers in southwest China's tobacco-producing Sichuan Province have seen their income grow steadily over recent years, with the aggregate annual income from tobacco growing expected to top 1.5 billion yuan (197 million U.S. dollars) in 2007, with the annual amount per household expected to reach 10,000 yuan (1,315 U.S. dollars) or higher. Over recent years, Sichuan Province has been striving to turn itself into a strategic high-quality leaf tobacco producing region in China, with the annual leaf tobacco output of the province expected to reach 5 million dan (250,000 tons) and the aggregate annual income of tobacco growers in the province expected to top 3 billion yuan (394 million U.S. dollars) by the end of the 2006-2010 five-year period, according to data released at the working conference on the development of a modern tobacco agriculture in Sichuan Province on November 13. So far, Sichuan Province has formed a basic tobacco-growing area comprising nearly 300 rural townships in 26 counties (or county-level cities), with 1.76 million mu (117,330 hectares) of basic tobacco farmland, and with 170,000 tobacco-growing farm households. The annual leaf tobacco output of Sichuan has steadily grown to 1.37 million dan (68,500 tons) in 2003 to more than 2.5 million dan (125,000 tons) in 2007. High-quality leaf tobacco produced in Sichuan is playing an increasingly important strategic role in cigarette production in China. Particularly, such well-known leaf tobacco products as Mountainous Light Aromatic leaf tobacco and the Delicate Aromatic leaf tobacco are unique in China. As a result, leaf tobacco produced in Sichuan has become a key part of the raw materials chosen by more than 10 large tobacco manufacturing enterprises in Shanghai, Hunan, Sichuan, Chongqing and other Chinese regions. The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration - the regulator of China's tobacco industry - is extending greater technical assistance to the tobacco industry of Sichuan in promoting the production of high-quality leaf tobacco, offering the provincial tobacco industry an unprecedented fine opportunity for business development promotion. Enditem