Jan 162014
 

MANILA, Philippines – Cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corp. will embark this year on a three-pronged assistance program to benefit 65,000 tobacco farmers in Cagayan Valley and Ilocos Region.

Mighty Corp. executive vice president Oscar Barrientos said the company allocated P10 million for the distribution of 35 irrigations pumps to some 35 farmers associations, 10 mini-tractors in tobacco-growing provinces, tools and farm implements.

Barrientos said the agricultural assistance would serve as common-service production equipment to groups of organized tobacco farmers for tobacco farms that have no access to irrigation facilities and small tractors.

The company will also provide some 20,000 long-sleeved farm shirts to ease the plight of tobacco farmers.

Hand in hand with the agricultural production assistance, the company will launch a scholarship program, in tandem with National Tobacco Administration (NTA) in the two regions for children of tobacco farmers. At present, NTA has en existing scholarship grants to 400 scholars who are provided P5,800 financial assistance each.

“Mighty Corp. will initially support NTA’s scholarship grants with 200 new college scholars this coming school year,” Barrientos said.

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The third component of the social responsibility program is Mighty Corp.’s institutional support for the annual search for outstanding tobacco farmers. The search being done by NTA covers three categories, one for Virginia tobacco growers, another for burley tobacco farmers and a third for native tobacco producers.

Sep 062013
 
Cigarette industry remains strong despite taxes

MANILA, Philippines – Despite the imposition of higher taxes on tobacco manufactures, the cigarette manufacturing industry in the country remains strong, said the National Tobacco Authority (NTA). NTA administrator Edgardo Zaragoza said yesterday that during consultations with stakeholders in the tobacco industry, it was resolved that there is no significant change in consumer demand  tobacco products. “There were concerns that a slight rise in taxes will be detrimental to the industry because of lower demand,” said Zaragoza. “But the industry continues to be stronger than it is. Stakeholders in the tobacco industry believe demand would remain high if higher taxes on tobacco products is countered by increased export and substitution of imported tobacco. To do this, the quality standards of local tobacco production should be raised.    The NTA concluded yesterday its biennial Tobacco Tripartite Consultative Conference during which minimum buying prices for tobacco were set for the next two trading years. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 During the consultation meeting, tobacco manufacturers stressed the need for farmers to produce high quality leaf to be used by local cigarette manufacturers so that importation would be lessened. “Tobacco is still a crop to believe in and will be around for a long time. As quality is improved, we are trying to keep more Philippines tobacco,” said Jorge Struecker, leaf buying manager of Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp.. “To sustain production, we need to increase production efficiency,” he added. Tobacco growing and trading firms also said Philippine tobacco needs Read More …