Vietnam targets stable tobacco leaf growing areas

A draft tobacco control law will be discussed by the National Assembly at the end of 2011 and adopted in 2012. This is considered an appropriate action in the context that Vietnam has signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the Government has a clear policy on controlling tobacco and limiting cigarette consumption.

According to Vietnam Tobacco Association, the development of high quality tobacco leaf areas to meet local market demand and secure stable jobs for tobacco farmers is still a priority, since local tobacco leaf supplies meet just 50 percent of the market demand and contraband cigarettes are still rampant, making up nearly 20 percent of the market. Directive 13 of May 12, 1999 states that it: “encourages investment for developing leaf areas and processing tobacco materials, producing tobacco materials locally as import substitutes and for export, contributing to gradually reducing trade deficit.” Moreover, the Prime Minister’s Decision 88/2007/QD-TTg approving the general strategy of Vietnam’s tobacco industry to 2010 and its vision to 2020 states there needs to be stable local leaf growing areas to serve local production.

A report from the Vietnam Tobacco Association says that the tobacco industry continues to make significant contributions to the national economy, though tobacco growing area makes up only 0.06 percent of total agricultural production land. It also created jobs for approximately 300,000 farmers and secured livelihoods for nearly 800,000 people by 2010. Tax revenue from the tobacco industry in 2010 reached 11,000 billion VND, equivalent to 2 percent of GDP.

Tags: Vietnam tobacco

Posted by VBN on Mar 25 2011. Filed under Agriculture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry