money
T
he tobacco growers decided “to take things easy” in the 2015/16 grow-
ing season. In light of the bigger supplies of tobacco, which were respon-
sible for the smaller prices fetched in the previous seasons, they decided
to reduce the cultivations. What made things worse were the unfavorable
weather conditions that adversely affected the productivity rates, result-
ing into a significantly smaller crop size. This result did not frustrate those who devote
their time to this activity: the tobacco fetched higher prices, and the families, on aver-
age, managed to earn satisfactory income from the crop.
This is the general balance of the season released by the Tobacco Growers’ Associa-
tion of Brazil (Afubra) in themain tobacco producing area in Brazil, 97%of it located in the
South. “For two years in a row average prices had suffered reductions, a fact that induced
the farmers to reduce their planted areas in the 2015/16 growing, a move that had been
stimulatedby the representativeentitieswith theaimtoequalizeoffer anddemand, as the
formerwasoutstripping the latter”, commentsBenícioAlbanoWerner, president of Afubra.
During the growing season, climate problems surfaced. The El Niño phenomenon
causedexcessiveprecipitation levels inall theproducing regions, withadverseeffects on
average productivity rates. In the most planted variety, Flue-Cured Virginia (87% of the
Maintobacco
producingarea
inSouthBrazil
harvesteda
slightlysmaller
cropinthe2015/16
growingseason,
butevensoits
financialresult
wassatisfactory
total) theperformanceper hectare fell from2,289 to1,971 kilograms. Furthermore, hailstorm incidences reducedeven further the sizeof the
crop. It was the year inwhich this phenomenon caused the biggest losses on record to Afubra’smutual insurance program, nowexisting for
61 years. The entity had to shell out R$ 121.7million in compensation for damages caused to 33,220 tobacco fields.
Producers in South
Brazil raked in
R$ 5.23 billion
in the 2015/16
growing season
Time is
In all, the crop suffered a reduction of 25%, reaching 525 thousand tons, according to
Afubra calculations. At industrial level, the volumes processedwere also 20-percent small-
er than in theprevious year, whilequalitywas rated fromreasonable togood, according to
theInterstateTobaccoIndustryUnion(SindiTabaco).Allthingsconsidered,whatreallyhap-
pened was an expressive increase in prices, approximately 40%, for the three types pro-
duced inSouthBrazil. Pricesof Flue-CuredVirginiawent up37.8%, andBurley, 53%.
As such, in spite of the smaller planted area and resulting smaller crop, the income
earned by the farmers was higher than the previous year. It amounted to R$ 5.23 billion,
against R$ 4.976 billion in the previous years, in the three Southern States (Rio Grande do
Sul,SantaCatarinaandParaná),where144,320familiesdevotedtheirtimetothecropdur-
ing the season. Every tobacco growing family earned R$ 36,241, on average, against R$
32,373 in theprevious season. Per capita incomewent up fromR$19,132 toR$23,454.
n
n
Despite the fall in production,
the high prices fetched by
tobacco encouraged the
farmers to plantmore
Inor Ag. Assmann
16
