China: Provincial Administration Holds Meeting on Cooperatives, Leaf Tobacco Purchase

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 07/23/2012

Yunnan Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration in southwest China’s tobacco-producing Yunnan Province held an on-site meeting in Dali City of Yunnan on July 6-7 on the development of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers under the system of a modern tobacco agriculture and on leaf tobacco purchase in the forthcoming harvest season across the province. The meeting summed up the work of fighting a lingering drought hitting southwest China and improving the structure of leaf tobacco products, and made planning for the work of developing specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers and leaf tobacco purchase in the forthcoming harvest season. Deputy Governor Gao Feng of Yunnan Province attended the meeting and delivered a speech. In the speech, Gao Feng pointed out that the whole province needs to give priority to well organizing construction of support infrastructure facilities for tobacco fields, generalization and application of farm machinery in tobacco production and the development of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers; practically promoting modernization of the mode of leaf tobacco production; and accelerating the promotion of a shift and upgrading of the traditional tobacco agriculture in Yunnan toward a modern tobacco agriculture, in order to form new development advantages of the business of leaf tobacco production in the province. The meeting emphasized that in a next period of time, the tobacco industry of Yunnan needs to tightly focus on the core issue of how to benefit tobacco growers; fully understand the great significance of developing specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers; adhere to the development orientation of “tobacco growers responsible for production and cooperatives responsible for service” and adoption of the model of development of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers for comprehensive service; improving the definition of the function of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers to provide comprehensive service; respecting the status of tobacco growers as the mainstay for leaf tobacco production; highlighting the policies of voluntary participation in specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers; realizing independent management and reduction of both manpower and costs and increasing income of tobacco growers; and increasing the development vitality of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers. Meanwhile, the meeting urged the strengthening of exploration for adopting new models of development of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers, the structure of governance, the level of management, the development of human resources, etc of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers; and also the strengthening of efforts to accelerate promotion of the development of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers in Yunnan. On the work of leaf tobacco purchase in the forthcoming harvest season across Yunnan, the meeting raised the requirements of meticulous organization, careful planning, practical strengthening of field management and reducing the output of unusable leaf tobacco closely in accordance with the policy of “strengthening management, improving the structure, controlling the total quantity and improving quality”; making planning more serious and organizing leaf tobacco purchase strictly in accordance with planning and contracts; firmly setting up the awareness about quality and improving the quality of all grades in a sustainable way; doing a good job of operating pilot projects of purchasing leaf tobacco from sporadic growers to further reduce the cost of leaf tobacco sales by growers; making the purchase disciplines more serious to ensure regulated and orderly purchase of leaf tobacco; and assigning responsibilities level by level to strengthen the organizational guarantee of leaf tobacco purchase and to practically do a good job of leaf tobacco purchase, in the interest of realizing steady development of leaf tobacco production, and increasing of both leaf tobacco output and income of tobacco growers across the province. Enditem