The World Tobacco Industry

Tobacco crop is cultivated in over 100 countries. China is considered the world’s major manufacturer. Other main providers are the United States, India, Brazil, Turkey, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Smoking products are used worldwide. The majority of tobacco is used for smoking; it is the fundamental component for cigarettes, pipes, cigars, roll-your-own, and bidis. Tobacco is also utilized for smokeless tobacco such as snuff or chewing tobacco. More than 80 % of world tobacco is widely used for cigarettes.
Among cigarettes, the global share of the American blend (a blend of Virginia, Burley and Oriental tobacco types) is boosting, and that for dark cigarettes is falling. China owns about 30 % of the whole production and consumption of cigarettes. At 12 % of the overall, the United States is the world’s second biggest maker. Some other major producers are Japan, Indonesia, Brazil and Germany. The global demand for tobacco products in the more developed countries is currently dropping. In the less emerging countries its expansion has slowed up. The international cigarette market is getting more and more concentrated by company. The three greatest corporations sell about 2/3 of the world’s total. In separate countries, the level of concentration can be higher. The cigarette manufacturers have responded to the sluggishness of demand in their conventional markets in three approaches: consolidation, variation, and increasing productivity. Government authorities deal with a dilemma. They currently have both an economic and a social interest in tobacco crop. It offers work opportunities, tax earnings and in particular cases foreign exchange profits. However governments also have a responsibility to guard their population’s health. Curing people from smoking-related diseases can be quite expensive. Generally, authorities deal with these disagreeing difficulties by discouraging demand in a number of ways. Increasing cigarette tax is the most popular method. Various have sued the cigarette manufacturers trying to recuperate the price of treating people for smoking-related diseases.
Global works prospective in the tobacco handling industry are not positive. Consolidation, privatization, greater productivity and sluggish demand increase together have a dampening impact on employment prospects. Job opportunities in countries with excessive costs and decreasing demand look mainly insecure. But in an open world economy it is eventually up to the giant companies to determine where to focus production, and which market will be supplied from where.