WHO guidelines a threat to golden leaf producers
The Standard
Sunday, 30 May 2010 06:09
ZIMBABWE’S tobacco industry is under threat from new World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations seeking to ban ingredients used in the manufacture of tobacco products.
WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control guidelines, if implemented will impact on jobs and livelihoods of millions of tobacco growers around the world, activists warned last week. The guidelines will eliminate traditional blended cigarettes, which account for approximately half of the global market. The impact on growers who supply the tobacco varieties used in these products would be dramatic. The move has drawn criticism from the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) which says such a move would impact on millions of livelihoods around the globe. “These recommendations have been made by bureaucrats, mostly from wealthy countries who know nothing about tobacco growing.Their recommendations could wipe out the livelihoods of millions of tobacco growers all over the world,” said Antonio Abrunhosa, ITGA chief executive officer. “For some inexplicable reason, tobacco growers, the very people most affected by the guidelines, are officially excluded from any discussions. “Even ministries of agriculture or economy seem unaware of the discussions taking place within the FCTC. There does not seem to be any balanced form of representation whatsoever.” Countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania now face the prospect of seeing millions of jobs lost and a huge decline in the export of tobacco. Tobacco cultivation is critical for the economies of developing countries and is one of the few agricultural activities to have remained buoyant during the recent worldwide economic crisis. The latest guidelines threaten to undo that, according to Roger Quarles, the ITGA president. “These guidelines are just plain wrong whichever way you look at them. Nobody has explained to me how banning some cigarette products and ignoring others will have any benefit for people’s health,” Quarles said. “It will just be a disaster for those growers who grow leaf for traditional blended products.” Abrunhosa said: “It’s not just tobacco growers whose livelihoods are threatened here. In some parts of the world, entire communities depend on the tobacco growing sector. I want to know what these bureaucrats have to say to the people whose lives they are going to ruin for no good reason whatsoever.” ITGA represents more than 30 million tobacco growers across Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. Tobacco is one of Zimbabwe’s largest foreign currency earners accounting for 26% of the country’s gross domestic product last year. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the world’s health body. It was adopted by the World Health Assembly on May 21 2003 and entered into force in February 2005. BY OUR STAFF