<strong>China: Henan Province Issues Opinions on Promoting Development Shift of Tobacco Industry</strong>

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 03/21/2013

The General Office of the provincial government of central China's Henan Province has recently issued the Opinions on Further Promoting Accelerated Shift of the Mode of Development of the Tobacco Industry of Henan, in efforts to consolidate and enhance the overall capacity and competitiveness of the provincial tobacco industry and promote economic development of Henan Province.

The Opinions specifies a package of targets for the development of the tobacco industry of Henan over the next three years: By 2015, the tobacco acreage in Henan will shall have reached 1.5 million mu (100,000 hectares) or more, and efforts shall be made to enlarge the annual leaf tobacco production capacity to a total of 4.5 million dan (225,000 tons); the annual cigarette output and sales volume of the provincial tobacco industry shall have reached 3.6 million cases (180 billion cigarettes) or more, with the annual output and sales of the Golden leaf cigarette brand alone to reach 3 million cases (150 billion cigarettes) or more, which shall rank the cigarette brand among the Top Ten cigarette brands of Grade Three and higher of China in terms of the annual sales value; the annual sales income earned by both the manufacturing and commercial enterprises of the provincial tobacco industry shall have reached 200 billion yuan (31.8 billion U.S. dollars) or higher, with the amount of taxes paid to reach 55 billion yuan (8.7 billion U.S. dollars) or more; and the tobacco industry of Henan shall have made breakthrough in the development of crucial technologies in the execution of major national-level tobacco scientific-technological projects, shall have mastered a number of core technologies, and shall have made a number of major landmark technological achievements, with the achievements in some fields reaching the world's advanced levels.

Henan is a major tobacco-producing region in China. The tobacco industry of Henan boasts obvious basic advantages, and makes great contributions to both the local finance and increase of the income of farmers. In 2012, the tobacco industry of Henan produced 169 billion cigarettes (3.38 million cases) - the second largest annual cigarette output for all provincial tobacco industries in China in the year. In the year, Henan Province grew 1.4 million mu (93,333 hectares) of tobacco, and sold to the State 4.06 million dan (20,300 tons) of leaf tobacco, taking the fourth place in China. The manufacturing and commercial sectors of the provincial tobacco industry generated a total of 43.616 billion yuan (6.93 billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits in the year, with the amount of taxes alone reaching 37.2 billion yuan (5.9 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for about 13 percent of the taxes generated by the whole province in the year. In 2012, the tobacco growers in Henan earned nearly 4.5 billion yuan (715 million U.S. dollars) from tobacco growing. Enditem