EU seeks to regulate tobacco ingredients

Malawi Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) says the European Union (EU) Parliament’s plan to vote on the regulations governing tobacco and cigarette ingredients this month, will deal a heavy blow to the country’s tobacco industry.

The EU is currently considering amendments to the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), which includes regulating the ingredients used in tobacco products.

Drafted by seven members of the 766-member organisation, the proposed regulations could threaten the jobs of more than 850 000 burley leaf tobacco farmers in Europe, Africa and the United States.

The amendment, in effect, bans the addition of any ingredients to tobacco products, other than tobacco leaf itself, during the manufacturing process.

In reaction to the proposed amendments, TCC chief executive officer Bruce Munthali told Business News yesterday this will have negative impact on the tobacco industry, which wires in more than half of the country’s foreign exchange earnings, contributes 13 percent to gross domestic product (GDP), 25 percent to the tax revenue and employs more than 50 percent of Malawians.

“Burley tobacco is generally blended with other types of tobacco and additives are also used. This amendment, if it passes, will reduce the demand for burley tobacco. We are very concerned and we will still be voicing our concerns against it,” he said.

Munthali noted that livelihoods of millions of Malawians depend on burley tobacco; hence banning the use of additives will have negative implications on their wellbeing as they will be forced to grow less of the crop.

Malawi, one of the highest burley tobacco producers in the world, has about 750 000 burley tobacco farmers and this amendment could spell doom for their livelihoods.

This year, Malawi produced about 168 million kilogrammes (kg) of tobacco, raking in $361.4 million (K126 billion) in revenue, according to Auction Holdings Limited (AHL) sales figures for the week ended August 29 2013.

Out of this, 145 million kg, or about 86 percent, raking in $292 million (K102 billion) in revenue, was burley with flue cured and dark fired accounting for the rest, clearly indicating the extent to which the country is hooked on to the type of tobacco.

The Tobacco Association of Malawi (Tama) chief executive officer Graham Kunimba, who represents the interests of 300 000 tobacco growers, yesterday said he was out of office and was yet to be briefed on the same and needed time to respond.

But president of the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA), Francois van der Merwe, observed in a statement that immediate rationale behind the lawmakers’ proposal seems obvious—public health concerns—and the most often cited is that such additions are intended to make the product more enticing.

But he said the reality is different and a good deal more complex.

Van der Merwe said burley tobacco, which is bitter, requires the addition of ingredients such as sugar in the manufacturing process to compensate for the elements that are lost during curing.

“Not, as the lawmakers would have us believe, to make it more enticing. There is no evidence that an ingredients ban would improve public health or reduce smoking levels,” he argued.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has acknowledged that insufficient evidence exists to demonstrate that this proposal would improve public health and, has clearly stated that cigarettes without ingredients are just as harmful as cigarettes with ingredients.

This directive, experts contend, will harm the farmer without delivering any health benefits.

The TPD will directly affect burley tobacco farmers and could be devastating to the economies of specific countries and regions inside the EU and outside.

Those affected in the EU are Poland, Italy, France, Spain and Bulgaria comprising more than 9 000 burley farmers who sell 90 percent of their product within the EU, according to available figures.

The most affected in Africa are Malawi [750 00 burley farmers] and Mozambique with 100 000 burley farmers.

Van der Merwe said these two countries sell more than half of their leaf to the EU.

“Keep in mind [that] burley and oriental tobacco growers cannot automatically shift to Virginia tobacco growing. So to simply ask them to change their leaf is not an option,” he said.