New Tobacco Production Management System Honored

Source from:  Changsha Evening News newspaper 05/31/2004

A new tobacco production management system developed by Liuyang City in south central China's Hunan Province was honored at a national symposium on leaf tobacco sustainable development held in Liuyang City on May 24-25. At the meeting attended by leaders of the tobacco monopoly administrative authorities, experts with the tobacco industry of China, and representatives of Chinese tobacco manufacturers and tobacco-growing region, leaders of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) and experts highly commented on the new tobacco production management system and agreed to promote its application in all the tobacco-growing regions in China. As a major tobacco-growing region in China, Liuyang has been successful in the industrialization of tobacco production over recent years. With the support of Changsha Cigarette Factory, which is one of the 36 key Chinese tobacco manufacturers, Liuyang City created the new tobacco production management system known as the "trinity tobacco production management system" integrating the role of the tobacco manufacturer, the government and the tobacco company in 1998. Through several years of great efforts, tobacco production in Liuyang has developed extraordinarily rapidly. The 1998 creation of the trinity tobacco production management system ushered in a period of rapid development of tobacco production in Liuyang. Under the system, Changsha Cigarette Factory, Liuyang City government and Liuyang City Tobacco Company cooperated in establishing high-quality leaf tobacco production plantations in the city. The STMA has rated the trinity tobacco production management system of Liuyang as the "Liuyang Model" for structural reform of the tobacco industry of China. Since 1998, Liuyang City Tobacco Company has invested 273 million yuan (32.8 million U.S. dollars) in the establishment of infrastructure facilities for tobacco production, including 1,960 greenhouses for developing tobacco seedlings, 30 tobacco seedlings development factories, 34,935 standard curing barns and more than 500 kilometers of irrigation ditches for tobacco growing. As a result, the local tobacco industry has generated 220 million yuan (26.5 million U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits while the income of the local tobacco growers has totaled nearly 200 million yuan (24 million U.S. dollars) since 1998. This year, Liuyang is growing over 90,000 mu (6,000 hectares) of tobacco. Liuyang has been designated as a national-level model tobacco-growing region for the research and development of international-type leaf tobacco, research and development of highly aromatic leaf tobacco, standardization of tobacco farming, and research and development of technologies for balanced application of fertilizers for tobacco production. Enditem