Ashortfall
of onemillion
Climate and actual scenario are blamed for
the shortfall of onemillion tons of the global
tobacco crop in the 2016/17 growing season
The climate and the reality of higher stocks
and tighter prices were responsible for the near-
ly one million ton drop in the 2016/17 global to-
bacco crop. Brazil is the second biggest global
producer of tobacco and occupies the leading
position in leaf exports. That is why, the Country
will gradually feel the reflections of the fall in the
consumption of conventional cigarettes.
According to data from the International
Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA), the vol-
ume of the 2016/2017 growing season was
down 16.6% from the previous season. An-
tônio Abrunhosa, chief-executive of the entity,
maintains that bad weather conditions in rel-
evant tobacco growing countries were a deter-
mining factor, but he also admits that the eco-
nomic scenario and the good previous season
were also a factor to some extent. The global
crop amounted to 4.77 million tons, compared
to the 5.73 million tons in the previous season.
“In general, the world reduced the tobac-
co crop because of droughts or excessive pre-
cipitation in some regions in Asia and Africa,
whilst our climate was very favorable in the
2016/17 crop year and we harvested around
720 thousand tons”, says Benício Albano Wer-
ner, president of the Tobacco Growers’ Associ-
ation of Brazil (Afubra).
By ITGA’s estimates, Chinawas responsible for
around 11.4% of the reduction in the total of the
year, reducing its crop from2.37million to2.1mil-
lion tons, followedby theUnitedStates (-55 thou-
sand tons), India (-47 thousand tons) and Zim-
babwe (-15 thousand tons), only considering the
relevant producers. If we includeAsia, Africa, Eu-
rope and theAmericas, itwas abigdifference. For
the 2017/18 crop year, now underway, the initial
projections by international organs suggest sta-
ble production, or even a small decrease.
Inthe2017/18season,
expectations
vary fromstability
toslight drop
Inor Ag. Assmann
30