Tobacco growers to receive 50% hike in prices

After repeated demands to increase the prices of tobacco supplies in relation with the hike in the price of the dollar and the corresponding weakening of the purchasing power of the Lebanese lira (https://bit.ly/3jjhXpM), the head of the Union of Tobacco Growers, Hassan Fakih, disclosed a compromise has been reached with Nassif Siqlawi, the director general of Regie, to increase the prices by 50% from last year (to become LBP 18,000 instead of LBP 12,000 per kg). Noting, that the Regie will start collecting the tobacco supply from farmers in the South as of Monday, October 26. A reminder that a number of southern villages rely entirely on the tobacco cultivation, namely Adshit, Tulin, Ksseibeh, Rmeish, Beit Lif, Aita Jabal, Yohmor- Nabatiyeh and Kfartabnit, Fakih reminded, pointing to the difficulties tobacco growers encounter. These include, notably, the soaring costs of land tilling, cultivation and pesticides, the increasing price of land lease by three times compared to last year and finally, the damage caused by the ravaging wild fires which hit Lebanon and the South recently. (Al Diyar, October 21, 2020)