The Kendu Leaf Trade: Problems & Prospects in Orissa - Vasundhara

Chart-1
Forms of tobacco consumption in India
Cigarettes
14%
Chew ing
products
46%
Bidi
40%
(based on www.tobaccojournal.com/A_passage_through_India)
As indicated in the above chart(#1), bidi should have atleast 40% share among the tobacco
products used in India. There is hardly any doubt that two decades ago this share was much
higher when competition from new forms of chewing products like gutka was at its minimum. In
fact, an assessment indicates that in 1971 the cigarette consumption also had a higher
share(23%).
Bidi has been the poor man’s cigarette since decades. A daily labourer or a rickshaw-puller used
to find himself more comfortable with this form of smoking than with cigarette. Even though the
cigarette industry has produced mini-cigarettes as counterparts of bidi, still it is believed that
there are 10 times more bidi-smokers than cigarette smokers, and that in 2004, about 960 billion
bidi sticks were sold in the country
(source: www.tobaccojournal.com/A_passage_through_India).
The bidi industry is a highly fragmented market, and except few, most of the units are small and
they produce bidi for the local market. There are also people who do not have any formal unit as
such, because they make bidi for supply to some ‘unit’, which then releases the same under its
own brand name. Some bidi companies have their units in different states, which gives them an
edge over the essentially localized units to adjust the profit or loss of one unit against that of the
other units.
Bidi industries actually belong to the cottage industry category so far their operations are
concerned. They hardly use any machinery, and usually employ labourers to roll bidis on
contract basis(i.e., wage is paid on the rolling of every thousand bidi).
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