Tobacco industry faces uphill battle
Published On September 9, 2014 » 2788 Views» By Davies M.M Chanda » Features
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• tobacco remains a legal product and that there are more than one billion people around the world who choose to use tobacco products

• tobacco remains a legal product and that there are more than one billion people around the world who choose to use tobacco products

By NICHOLAS MWALE –
“LET me put it on record that as a sector, although we support regulation, we cannot, and we will not support extreme regulation of any nature,” so proclaims International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA).
“In fact, we have no option but to oppose measures of extreme nature,” ITGA President Francois Van Der Merwe declares on human health against economic importance.
The tobacco industry is synonymous with challenges that erupt mostly during marketing, that include grading, pricing, management of the floors, out grower systems and many others.
While various domestic challenges continue to hinder growth of the local sector in different tobacco growing countries, the industry’s future on a wider perspective, blinks due to increased messages of health hazards tobacco poses to human health.
The continued anti-tobacco campaigns by the World Health Organisation (WHO) place the sector on a serious predicament that beneficiaries fear may send the industry into extinction.
Tobacco is undeniably an important cash crop not only for Zambia, but many other countries that produce the crop in Africa and the world as a whole.
Talking about its importance, one has in mind, employment creation and the much needed foreign exchange the crop attracts.
For example, in Zambia, the average production of tobacco in the past five years has been about 40 million kilogrammes valued at US$100 million.
The sector also creates about 450,000 jobs, thus justifying its significance to the economy of the country.
But regardless of its importance, WHO is alive to the fact that tobacco has hazardous effects on human health and environment. In light of this, there are calls for other alternative cash crops.
To this effect, the World Health Organisation-Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO-FCTC) has embarked on developing guidelines aimed at reducing the use of tobacco and its products.
Through various Conferences of Parties (COP), CFTC has so far adopted some guidelines through different Articles of the FCTC Act.
Generally, the guidelines include the protection of public health policies with respect to tobacco control from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry, protection from exposure to tobacco smoke and packaging as well as labelling of tobacco products.
Other guidelines are on education, communication, training and public awareness, tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship as well as demanding reduction measures concerning tobacco dependence and cessation.
For example, Article (9) and (10) of (WHO-FCTC) are focussed on testing, measuring and disclosure of content and emissions of tobacco products while article (17) and (18) focuses on promoting alternative crops and the protection of the environment.
But these are decisions that the tobacco sector does not seem to be comfortable with as expressed by the president of the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA).
During the Tobacco Stakeholders Regional Consultative meeting on Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) held in Lusaka recently, Mr Van Der Marwe clearly expressed displeasure at the regulatory measures on the Tobacco industry by FCTC.
With representation from tobacco producing countries that included Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia as the host, the meeting was aimed at sharing ideas on how the region could meet the many challenges that come with the convention.
“There are various companies, grower organisations and manufactures that represent the tobacco sector, that indicates typical of the value chain working together,” Mr Van Der Marwe observed.
According to Mr Van Der Marwe, the tobacco sector was more under the impression of the importance of the whole value chain and its interdependence.
“The equation is very simple, no tobacco farmers, no leaf, no leaf companies, no manufacturers, it is as simple as that,” he explained.
Mr Van Der Marwe is of the view that the other side is also true, if there are no manufacturers of tobacco products, or leaf companies who contract farmers and process the leaf, there will be no market for tobacco farmers.
The importance and interdependence of the whole value chain of the tobacco industry is what Mr Van Der Marwe believes needs to be preserved.
One key issue that comes out is that, the sector realises the need to act responsibly.
“We have always admitted in public and we are on record that the tobacco sector recognises that tobacco use causes harm to people’s health and that is the end of the story. There are no arguments about that. Tobacco is not a vitamin, it is a harmful product,” he admitted
Because it is a harmful product, the sector agrees that it needs to be regulated.
However, the argument is that tobacco remains a legal product and that there are more than one billion people around the world who choose to use tobacco products.
“I have never seen a person forced to use tobacco products,” Mr Van Der Marwe stated. “I have never seen a tobacco farmer forced to grow tobacco.
“This is all with choice, all within the free market principles and all around who chooses to what in life.”
With these arguments put forward, the tobacco sector stands firm on the position of not supporting extreme regulations which producers believe will not achieve desired results.
Their call remains that of sensible, reasonable and evidence based regulation meant to reduce the intake of tobacco products.
To archive sensible regulation, the industry calls for proper and inclusive consultation process and interaction which producers claim they have never been offered an opportunity to be involved at the high level.
“This is where things went wrong, not in Zambia, not in many of our countries in Africa but in Geneva at the World Health Organisation because from the start, they chose to work in an exclusionary manner and that is why we have seen previous conference of parties with some very extreme proposals being put forward,” observed Mr Van Der Marwe.
Zambia, being a signatory to the FCTC, believes the developments are of serious concern to the tobacco industry in the country as they will result in reduced demand for African tobacco thus leaving thousands of tobacco farmers destitute.
Agriculture and Livestock Deputy Minister Greyford Monde explained that the FCTC guidelines would negatively affect the social-economic developments of several African states that rely on tobacco growing.
However, Mr Monde says the need for countries to continue promoting production of other cash crops by farmers in the spirit of agriculture diversification.
“Reduction in tobacco production without taking into consideration the concerns will be detrimental to the tobacco farming communities and our economies at large,” said Mr Monde.
Zambia joins other member states in the region to express their concerns on article 9, 10, 17 and 18 in their current form before adequate research is done.
Meanwhile, Tobacco Board of Zambia (TBZ) observes the need for tobacco producing countries to share views and come up with a common position on how to meet the challenges of the tobacco industry.
“The FCTC articles call for replacement of tobacco crop with alternative crops and also condemn tobacco as hazardous to health and a source of environmental degradation, source of child labour, is purported to be promoting poverty and stress and many more negative statements on the crop,” observes TBZ Chief Executive Officer Samson Muyembe.
While some statements are true, Mr Muyembe believes some are exaggerated because not much research may have been done to make conclusions on tobacco.
He explains that the country has implemented the ban on smoking in public places as per requirement of some articles since Zambia acceded to the FCTC in 2005.
The country according to TBZ has also restricted advertising of tobacco and is conducting pilot studies on tobacco dependence and cessation.
“Zambia will continue growing tobacco as a crop of national importance and will work with World Health Organisation in order to further contribute to the development of the protocols on article nine, 10, 17 and 18,” declared Mr Muyembe.
TBZ suggests that the implementation of the articles should be done in a manner that is not disruptive and takes into account the different viewpoints expressed by major stakeholders including tobacco stakeholders.
Clearly, the future of tobacco is dependent on the outcome of the heated issue of human health versus economic importance, a question which for now remains a matter of debate.-NAIS

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