Anuário Brasileiro do Tabaco 2016 - page 46

T
he cultivation of cigar tobacco in Brazil involves about 2,000 small-scale
farmers, who grow, on average, some 20 thousand plants per hectare,
harvest begins in late July and extends to early October. According to the
Tobacco Industry Union of Bahia (Sinditabaco-BA), currently, the planted
area in Bahia comprises 2 thousand hectares, resulting into 2 thousand
tons of cigar fillers (Brazil Bahia Variety) and 2 thousand tons of cigar wrappers (Su-
matra, Cubra and Brazil Bahia).
The farmers only grow the Brazil Bahia variety, whose planted area in the State reach-
es 1 thousand hectares. The Sumatra variety is planted in about 800 hectares and the Cu-
bra variety, in 200 hectares, the latter two are cultivated only by the industries. The main
and best well-known tobacco growing areas inBahia are known asMata Fina (on the sur-
roundings of Cruz das Almas), which identifies the type of tobacco for the market. There
the regions denominatedMataNorte, starting in SãoGonçalodos Campos (which, by the
way, is identified as Mata São Gonçalo), and Mata Sul, close to Amargosa. As to the per-
Projectionisfor
Bahiatoreap1.5
thousandtons
ofcigartobacco
inthe2016/17
growingseason,
down30%fromthe
previousperiod
formance, onaverage, productionper hectare reaches one tonof processed filler leaves and800 kilograms of leaves usedas cigarwrappers.
Currently, the sector generates 4 thousand direct jobs and 10 thousand indirect ones. According to Marcos Souza, executive direc-
tor at Sinditabaco-BA, this number could be much bigger. “Brazil is the most expensive country in the world for producing cigars. As
Cigar manufacturing
employs 14 thousand
people either directly
or indirectly
always
Since
we use a lot of labor, social security fees represent about 56% of our production cost”.
The cigar tobacco supply chain reached its peak in the 1990s, when 50 million pieces
were manufactured a year, generating more than 70 thousand direct and indirect jobs.
Now, production reaches about 14 million pieces a year.
As far as the market goes, approximately 95% of cigar tobacco produced in Brazil is ex-
ported. China accounts for 20% of all purchases, and the rest is shipped to Europe,
mainly to Germany, Holland and Switzerland. Souza understands that this performance
could equally by higher, both in exports and in domestic consumption. “For commercial
reasons, our tobacco reaches Europe with a tax burden of 27%, a fact that does not oc-
cur with Central America countries. On the other hand, Cuban cigars enter Brazil almost
free of any taxes. It is a very complicated situation”, he argues.
n
n
Cigar sector in Bahia
generates approximately 4
thousand direct jobs and 10
thousand indirect ones
Cássio Fernando Filter
44
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