<strong>China: STMA Urges Establishment of Model Specialized Cooperatives of Tobacco Growers</strong>

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 04/02/2013

The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) – the regulator of China's tobacco industry – issued on March 19 a notice urging active efforts to strengthen the establishment of comprehensive service-oriented model specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers by the whole of the tobacco industry in tobacco-producing regions across China.

The issuance of the notice is intended to implement the spirit of Official Document No. 1 of 2013 issued by the Central Authorities, innovate agricultural production and operation systems, develop new types of agricultural operators, increase the extent of organization of tobacco growers and accelerate efforts to promote the establishment of specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers.

On the basis of selection and proposal of candidate areas by tobacco-producing regions across China, the STMA eventually determined through verification a total of 91 existing specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers for establishment as model specialized cooperatives for the year 2013, including Chengchuan Cooperative in Xiangyun County of Yunnan Province, Jiangbei Cooperative in Yuqing County of Guizhou Province, Huimin Cooperative in Nange Township of Sichuan Province, Jinchun Cooperative in Ningxiang County of Hunan Province and Jukou Cooperative in Jianyang City of Fujian Province.

The notice emphasizes that efforts shall be made to establish and develop advanced and typical cooperatives through the establishment of a number of model cooperatives by the tobacco industry, in order to form duplicable models of establishing specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers that can be generalized in tobacco-growing regions across China.

The notice requires that model specialized cooperatives of tobacco growers shall be established at the rate of "one cooperative for each base" in principle, and that efforts shall be strengthened to make tobacco growers more active in joining specialized cooperatives, to ensure that 80 percent or more of the tobacco growers will join specialized cooperatives.

The notice urges efforts to establish professional service teams, improve service networks, and give priority to doing a good job of specialized service at key processes including tobacco seedlings development, tractor plowing, vegetation protection, leaf tobacco curing and grading. It urges active exploration for providing specialized service in such processes as tobacco seedlings transplantation, fertilization, leaf tobacco picking and transportation.

The notice calls for strengthening efforts for support, strictly implementing government policies on industrial subsidies, strengthening regulation over the forms and standards of subsidies, winning support policies and funding through multiple channels and by multiple means, and keeping innovating and improving support policy guarantee mechanisms.

Under the premise of giving priority to the development of tobacco production, efforts shall also be made to do a good job of maintaining and protecting facilities for model specialized cooperatives by the tobacco industry, generalizing technologies, strengthening material supply, enhancing information support and strengthening the development of functions in other aspects, in order to strengthen the function of self-promotion and strengthen the internal motive force for development, according to the notice. Enditem