THAILAND: Planters Want Equal Treatment

Source from:  tobaccojournal.com 10/26/2004

Northern farmers have called on the state-run Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (TTM) to increase the price it pays for tobacco leaves by 12 baht a kilogram, citing higher costs of fuel and fertiliser. About 200 tobacco farmers from Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Phayao, Nan, Phrae, Lampang, Mae Hong Son and Lamphun provinces on 24 October met the prime minister's secretary-general Yongyuth Tiyapairat at a Chiang Rai hotel to discuss the issue. They want the TTM to boost payment for dried Virginia leaves from 66 baht to 78 baht a kilo. They said the price has not changed since 1998 despite rising production costs. Voranut Jittalarn, secretary of the tobacco growers association in Chiang Mai, said tobacco has been farmed for many generations, but the authorities have never promoted it as a career. More than 10,000 families grow tobacco in the North on about 60,000 rai of land. Ms Voranut said tobacco leaf sales had been hard hit by the government's anti-smoking campaign and the popularity of imported cigarettes in Thailand. Naris Wongwan, 50, son of veteran politician Narong Wongwan and an executive at the Theppawong tobacco plant, said tobacco was the only agricultural product not promoted by the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry. Farmers frequently had to seek loans to continue in business. Local cigarettes have lost over 20 per cent of their market share to imported cigarettes, he said. Northern farmers would suffer even more if China and India were successful in pushing for free trade in tobacco with Thailand next year as their cigarettes were cheaper than Thai brands. He urged the government to draw up measures to help tobacco farmers cut production costs to enable them to compete with other countries. Mr Yongyuth promised to forward the farmers' demand for higher tobacco leaf prices to the relevant agencies. Enditem