<strong>China: STMA Holds 2013 Annual National Leaf Tobacco Work Symposium</strong>

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 11/25/2013

The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) – the regulator of China's tobacco industry – held the 2013 annual national leaf tobacco work symposium in Beijing on November 14, to sum up the results of leaf tobacco production in 2013, to exchange successful experience in leaf tobacco production, and to plan work and tasks for leaf tobacco production in 2014.

STMA Director-General Ling Chengxing attended the meeting and delivered an address.

In the address, Ling Chengxing fully affirmed the achievements made in the work of leaf tobacco production in 2013. He pointed out that leaf tobacco production in China has registered stable development for 16 consecutive years, that the tobacco industry has realized effective regulation and control over leaf tobacco purchase quotas, that the income of tobacco growers has kept going up, that the number of units of high-quality exclusive leaf tobacco production and supply bases has kept increasing, and that the proportion of high and medium grade leaf tobacco has kept growing.

Meanwhile, the annual amount of subsidies for building infrastructure facilities for tobacco fields has been stabilized at 15 billion yuan (2.45 billion U.S. dollars) or higher for quite many years, which has made great contribution to socioeconomic development in the tobacco-growing regions and to increasing the income of tobacco growers, according to the STMA chief.

Ling Chengxing emphasized that in 2014, the requirements for leaf tobacco work are to guard the redline for annual State leaf tobacco purchase; to keep promoting the level of development of modern tobacco agriculture, the level of construction of infrastructure facilities for exclusive high-quality leaf tobacco production and supply bases and the level of leaf tobacco quality and technology; to strive to consolidate the basis for building the "No. 1 workshop" for the sector of cigarette production; and to strive to consolidate the basis for increasing the income of all tobacco growers, for enriching them and for socioeconomic development in the tobacco-growing regions.

For leaf tobacco work in 2014, Ling Chengxing put forward a package of five specific requirements:

Firstly, control over the total quantity:

The tobacco industry of China will spend the next three years or so readjusting the total quantity of leaf tobacco inventories in China to a rational level, to genuinely realize the target of "readjusting and reducing annual production quotas, improving the structure of products and improving the quality of products" in the work of leaf tobacco production.

Secondly, policy stabilization:

The tobacco industry of China will make efforts to basically stabilize the leaf tobacco purchase pricing policies, leaf tobacco subsidization policies and policies on investment in the construction of infrastructure facilities for tobacco fields.

Thirdly, improvement of the structure of products:

The tobacco industry of China will continue adherence to the measures for improving the structure of leaf tobacco on the basis of "threshing two upper leaves and two lower leaves", will guide farmers to growth such fine tobacco varieties as the "Red Flower Big Gold Coin", Cuibi No. 1 and K326, and will appropriately readjust annual leaf tobacco import and export quotas.

Fourthly, promotion to higher levels:

The tobacco industry of China will well manage and well use funds for building infrastructure facilities for tobacco fields and for building projects of water sources, to promote the construction of infrastructure facilities to higher levels; will make exploration for promoting the construction of units of exclusive high-quality leaf tobacco production and supply bases to higher levels, with lean production as the major content; and will improve the model for the development of "big tobacco-growing households (family farms) plus cooperatives", to promote development of both to higher levels.

And fifthly, strict performance assessment:

Application of the performance assessment measure of "offsetting any excess in leaf tobacco production with annual quotas for the next year" on provincial-level tobacco companies will remain unchanged.

At the symposium, representatives from Shandong Provincial Tobacco Company, Guizhou Provincial Tobacco Company, Yunnan Provincial Tobacco Company, Hunan Provincial Tobacco Company and China Tobacco Hubei Industrial Co., Ltd. made speeches in exchanging successful experience in leaf tobacco work.

The participants in the meeting also included leaders of the relevant departments and units of the STMA and China National Tobacco Corporation, leaders of the provincial-level tobacco companies (which double as the provincial-level tobacco monopoly administrations) in all tobacco-growing regions, leaders of all China Tobacco regional companies and leaders of the work tobacco work departments.  Enditem