ALLIANCE ONE ANTICIPATES A GOOD BUYING SEASON

Mark Mason showing Minister Chiba around AOTTL Unprocessed tobacco Storage. Elizabeth Chuma- Receiving and and Green Storage Manager

Morogoro: The 2013 tobacco buying season began earlier this year in May and Alliance One Tobacco Tanzania Limited (AOTTL) is anticipating an encouraging season for tobacco growers. The buying targets that AOTTL is working towards are 29.93 million kilograms for Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco and 1.04 million kilograms for Dark Fire Cured tobacco (DFC). Currently the season is midway and the tobacco already purchased stands at 16.42 million kilograms for FCV tobacco and 0.06 million kilograms for DFC tobacco.

“Alliance One prides itself in being well prepared for every new tobacco buying season, this helps us focus on maintaining our high standards and quality. Working with all our stakeholders from the farmer right through to regulators; our employees and our customers, we work hard  to ensure out industry leading quality is maintained at all levels of the production chain. This year we are focusing on increasing our efficiencies in our production chain, to build on the successes of last year where we produced in excess of 30 million kilograms of tobacco at our facility in Morogoro,” said Mark Mason, Alliance One’s MD.

The targets set by AOTTL agronomy experts annually are in line with growing the Company, and satisfying local and international clientele with both the quantity and quality they expect from Alliance One. AOTTL farmers are also considered in the annual strategies through the investment by the Company in enhancing farmers’ skills to improve their methods. The signs of better yields are already evident as reflected in the current average price per kilogram of US$2.40 for FCV, which exceeds the targeted average price of US$2.06. The same positive results are reflected in DFC average prices which currently stand at US$1.68 from a target of US$1.47. AOTTL has already purchased US$39.90 million worth of FCV and US$960,000.00 worth of DFC as of 30th June 2013.

Tanzania’s tobacco farming has experienced tremendous growth in recent years due to the conditions prevailing within the industry including, improved marketing transparency; effective production management; greater crop compliance; organising smallholder farmer units into Primary Societies and increased productivity potential. The improvements noted in the last few years are the culmination of a successful partnership between all stakeholders in the tobacco farming industry. 

“Alliance One continues to be a significant contributor to Tanzania’s annual tax revenue, and welcomes the on-going and planned developments to infrastructure especially the road networks. A better road network can only help enhance the Company’s efficiencies, considering the fuel levy increase mentioned in the recent budget speech. I am excited that Alliance One continues to play its part in contributing to Tanzania’s development, especially in light of a buying season that already looks positive at this stage,” said Mason.