Provincial Tobacco Industry Meets on Partial Substitution for Leaf Tobacco Imports

Source from:  STMA 05/13/2005

The tobacco industry of south central China's Hunan Province held a symposium on April 27-29 on the implementation of projects of partial substitution of homegrown high-quality leaf tobacco for leaf tobacco imports and control of maturity of leaf tobacco. Attending the meeting were representatives of the manufacturing, commercial and research sectors of the provincial tobacco industry. During the meeting, the participants discussed the implementation of the projects over the past year and specific steps for further implementation in 2005. In accordance with the policy of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) to promote partial substitution of homegrown high-quality leaf tobacco for leaf tobacco imports, the three sectors of the provincial tobacco industry signed an agreement on cooperation in implementation of projects of partial substitution and maturity control, to define the rights and obligations of the three sectors in this respect. In light of the persistent cold weather in the current tobacco growing season, the meeting proposed the adoption of relevant technical measures and pointed out the direction of research in 2005 – the analysis of contents of aromas and the research of support technologies for purifying aromas; the research of coordination of chemical compositions with the focus on how to lower the content of starch, control the level of nicotine and solve the problem that leaf tobacco produced in certain model plantations lacks luster; and the research of ways of narrowing down the disparity of quality between upper and lower leaves, which is mainly intended to increase the sweetness of upper leaves and solve the problem that upper leaves generate relatively strong flavor and that lower leaves are of insufficient flavor. The meeting decided to establish a system of award and punishment according to results of the evaluation of performance, under which Hunan Provincial Tobacco Administration will earmark funds for awarding well-performing personnel with the county or city level tobacco companies, cigarette factories and research units designated to implement the projects of partial substitution and maturity control. Enditem