Tobacco and Public Health - TCSC Indonesia

274
TOBACCO IN AFRICA: MORE THAN A HEALTH THREAT
due to the availability of cheap labour and easy access to natural resources (i.e., woodfuel
and fresh pest-free soils).
The cigarette manufacturers and major leaf buying companies have encouraged
tobacco growing to ensure a ready supply of tobacco leaf at lower prices. In Tanzania,
the leaf merchant, Dimon, has contracted 30 000 farmers providing them with seed,
fertiliser, and financial and technical assistance. BAT has contracted 50 000 farmers in
Uganda and 10 000 farmers in Kenya.
Between 1989/91 and 1995 the area under tobacco cultivation in Africa south of
the equator increased by 18% to 291 000 ha and crop yield was up by 27% (Geist
1988). The increase was even greater in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania, the largest
African producers, with the land under cultivation going up by 28% and production
by 37%.
SSA countries produced a total of about 500 000 tons of tobacco annually accounting
for 7% of global production. About 228 000 tons are produced in Zimbabwe and
99 000 tons by Malawi (the world’s leading producer of Burley leaf). Other important
producers in the region include South Africa (30 000 tons), Tanzania (25 000), Uganda
(23 000), Kenya (18 000), and Cote d’Ivoire (12 000).
The Zimbabwean and Malawian economies are highly dependent upon tobacco,
earning 30% and 70%, respectively of their total foreign earnings from the crop.
Zimbabwe is ranked sixth and Malawi eighth among the world’s leading tobacco
producers.
The massive increase in global tobacco leaf production together with a limited
number of buyers has resulted in a decline in leaf prices. Between 1985
and 2000, the real price of flue-cured tobacco fell by 37 per cent to US$ 1221
per ton.
The transnational manufacturers purchase 85–95% of the tobacco exported from
the developing world and it is the companies that set leaf prices. The industry journal,
Tobacco International has noted that the limited number of leaf buyers in countries
like Malawi ‘has led to reduced competition—especially when one company is purchasing
more than 50 per cent of the crop.’ (Kille 1998). In 1998, the then chairman
of the International Tobacco Growers Association, Richard Tate was moved
to complain: ‘By switching prices on and off in successive seasons, the buyers are
endangering long-term stability of supply … We have all been surprised and shocked
at the buyers’ short-sighted behaviour, which has severely affected all the regional
markets.’
Leaf prices slumped across all African markets in 1988 with prices falling by as much
as 40% in Zimbabwe. In 2000, Malawi again experienced a harsh shock when average
auction price tumbled by 35%, down from US$ 1.56 in 1999 to US$ 1.01 per kg. The
2000 season opened with the historic low price of US 10 cents per kg at the opening of
the Lilongwe floors in Malawi.