Chinese Region to Establish High-Quality Tobacco Production Base

09/22/2005

Panzhihua City - a region highly suitable for tobacco growing in southwest China's Sichuan Province - will establish a major high-quality tobacco production base in the province in 2006. Under an agreement signed with Sichuan Provincial Tobacco Administration, the annual leaf tobacco yield of the high-quality tobacco production base will reach 600,000 dan (30,000 tons) in the 2006-2010 period. Panzhihua is one of the Chinese regions most suitable for growing high-quality leaf tobacco. In 2005, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and Sichuan Provincial Tobacco Monopoly Administration instructed Panzhihua to grow 80,000 mu (5,333 hectares) of tobacco and purchased 200,000 dan (10,000 tons) of leaf tobacco from the region. In support of the establishment of the high-quality tobacco production base, Panzhihua City is planning to 6,600 standard curing barns. So far, Panzhihua City Government has included the sustainable development of high-quality leaf tobacco production into its general plan for economic development in the 2006-2010 period, in striving to turn high-quality tobacco production into a pillar industry of the rural economy. Enditem