Chinese Region to Invest Heavily in Tobacco Growing

Source from:  cqnews.net 11/28/2005

Chongqing City - a major tobacco producing region in southwest China - is planning to invest 1 billion yuan (123 million U.S. dollars) in building irrigation systems for 1 million mu (66,667 hectares) of tobacco plantations in the city, in an effort to greatly promote the development of leaf tobacco production. In 2006, the city will extend an extra 4 million yuan (49.3 million U.S. dollars) in subsidies for tobacco machinery purchase, in order that the total of tobacco machinery in Chongqing City will increase to 1,500 sets. Over the next three years, Chongqing will manage to reduce the number of State leaf tobacco purchase stations in the city to some 200 from the level of more than 500 in cost control. By November 20, State-run tobacco companies had purchased 1.5276 million dan (76,380 tons) of leaf tobacco and burley - 1.4632 million dan (73,160 tons) of flue-curd tobacco and 64,400 tons dan (3,220 tons) of burley - from Chongqing City, respectively up 205,000 dan (10,250 tons) and 17,600 dan (880 tons) over the same time of 2004. High-grade flue-cured tobacco accounted for 32.9 percent of the total of the flue-cured tobacco purchased. The average flue-cured tobacco purchase price was 8.96 yuan (1.1 U.S. dollars) per kilogram, up 61 cents (7.5 U.S. cents) year-on-year. The tobacco growers in Chongqing City had earned an estimated 800 million yuan (98.6 million U.S. dollars) from tobacco growing by November 20. Also by November 20, State-run tobacco companies in Chongqing had processed 979,000 dan (48,950 tons) of leaf tobacco and had sold 950,000 dan (47,500 tons) of processed leaf tobacco to tobacco manufacturing enterprises, earning 1.52 billion yuan (187 million U.S. dollars) in sales income, including 107 million yuan (13 million U.S. dollars) in profits. In 2005, two cigarette factories - Changsha Cigarette Factory in south central China's Hunan Province and Xuzhou Cigarette Factory in east China's Jiangsu Province - each invested in 20 million yuan (2.46 million U.S. dollars) in acquiring shares in two local companies in Chongqing. In 2006, Chongqing City will grow 600,000 mu (40,000 hectares) of tobacco and 40,000 mu (2,667 hectares) of burley, for producing 1.35 million dan to 1.4 million dan (67,500 tons to 70,000 tons) of flue-cured tobacco and 100,000 dan (5,000 tons) of burley. In 2006, the unit leaf tobacco yield in Chongqing is expected to reach 110 kilograms per mu (per 0.067 hectare), with the proportion of high-grade leaf tobacco to reach over 80 percent. The city is also expected to earn 150 million yuan (18.5 million U.S. dollars) in profits from leaf tobacco production in 2006. Enditem