ALLIANCE ONE ON TARGET FOR 2014 TOBACCO BUYING SEASON

AOTTL Managing Director, Mark Mason.

Tobacco bales awaiting grading at a Primary Society godown in Tabora

The tobacco buying season which began in Tanzania during May 2014, resulted in Alliance One Tobacco Tanzania Limited (AOTTL) purchasing 28 million kgs of Flue Cured Tobacco by third week of August 2014. The Flue cured tobacco (FCV) was valued at 61.7million USD (Tshs 101.805 Billion) at an average price of 2.20 USD per kilo. Dark Fire cured tobacco (DFC) purchases stood at 0. 225 million Kgs valued at 0.278 million USD (Tshs 458.7 million) at an average price of 1.23 USD per kg.  AOTTL buys tobacco from 182 contracted Primary Societies with over 35,000 farmer members.

“The targets set at the beginning of the season stand at 35 million Kgs of Flue Cured Tobacco and 0.5 million kgs of Dark Fired Tobacco,” said AOTTL MD Mark Mason, from Morogoro on Friday. “At present the bought tobacco is at 80% of the target for FCV. I am happy to report that analyzing the current buying trends it is likely that the targets will be met by the end of the buying season in October 2014 and quality has been as expected,” concluded Mason.

Purchased tobacco is transported to Alliance One factory in Morogoro for processing and selling to domestic and export customers. Purchases amounting to 15.177 million kgs of tobacco have already been received at the factory. The processing stage for the tobacco began in June 2014, and is scheduled to go up to December 2014. AOTTL’s 50 Million USD factory employs 300 permanent staff and provides jobs for over 2000 seasonal employees at the peak of the season.

Tanzania Tobacco Board (TTB), the regulatory authority of the Tobacco industry in Tanzania, estimates total production in the country this season to be 104 million kgs of Flue cured tobacco valued at 219 million USD (Tshs 362 Billion) at an estimated average price of USD 2.11 per kg and 1.074 million kgs of Dark Fired Tobacco valued at 1.6 million USD (Tshs 2.640 Billion) at an average price of 1.48 USD per kg.

Tobacco is the leading foreign exchange earner among Tanzania’s traditional export crops earning the Country more than 300 million USD annually.

Alliance One Tobacco Tanzania Ltd (AOTTL) with its headquarters in Morogoro municipality at Kingolwira township is a subsidiary company of Alliance One International (AOI) of the USA, with its headquarters in North Carolina. It is one of the three tobacco buying companies in Tanzania buying more than 35 million kgs of tobacco from 182 Primary Cooperative Societies with more than 39,800 farmers in Tabora, Urambo, Kahama, Manyoni, Iringa, Kasulu, Songea and Mara.