A “Sustainability Working Group” was established within the Aegean Tobacco Exporters Union to ensure sustainability in exports of leaf tobacco, one of Turkey’s traditional export products.
İZMİR (İGFA) – Aegean Tobacco Exporters Association President Ömer Celal Umur stated that leaf tobacco is among the agricultural products with the highest commercial value, while Turkey ranks seventh in the world tobacco production. emphasized that it is the world leader in oriental tobacco production.
Stating that they established a “Sustainability Working Group” with the participation of the representatives of the leaf tobacco exporters who are members of the Aegean Tobacco Exporters Union in order to ensure sustainable production and export in leaf tobacco trade, Umur said, “The work of the working group where solutions and project proposals on various issues related to tobacco agriculture will be discussed. We expect various projects to be created in areas such as production, environment, infrastructure, labor, and water use in tobacco agriculture. “In today’s world, where sustainability has become an indisputable issue in every field from production to export, the ideas that will come to life by leaving the working group are of great importance in order to ensure a sustainable production ecosystem with leaf tobacco agriculture and exports with much less damage to nature.
The main factors of the potential that makes the Turkish tobacco industry successful; Aegean Tobacco Exporters’ Association President Ömer Celal Umur, who lists the production technology that can easily meet world standards, product quality and contract production with producers, said, “Thanks to the contracted production in leaf tobacco production, tobacco is produced in a total of 5 thousand villages in Turkey, while approximately 60 thousand families earn their livelihood from tobacco. provides from its production. ”
Leaf tobacco and tobacco products exports decreased by 28 percent in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020. Exports of tobacco and tobacco products, which were 218 million dollars in the January – March period of 2020, were recorded as 157 million dollars in the first quarter of 2021.
The top three countries in leaf tobacco exports were the United States with 14 million dollars of exports, Belgium with 6.7 million dollars and Indonesia with 3.7 million dollars of Turkish tobacco exports, while three countries got a 50 percent share of our leaf tobacco exports.
In the export of tobacco products; Iran ranked first with $ 20.2 million, Iraq second with $ 10.8 million, and Israel third with $ 8.7 million.
