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A tobacco tripartite conference to be attended by the various stakeholders of the country’s tobacco industry is slated to be held in September. The exact date will be announced later.

Administrator Carlitos Encarnacion of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) said the conference, which will be held at the NTA board room in Quezon City, is expected to draw top executives and representatives from the private sector, tobacco farmers’ groups, and the government represented by NTA.

The tripartite meeting is held every two years to set the floor prices of all types and grades of tobacco leaves during trading. The floor prices to be agreed upon in the September confab will cover two tobacco seasons, next year and in 2009.

The setting up of floor prices is a mechanism developed by NTA to assure the farmers of at least a reasonable margin of profit for their produce. Traditionally, high quality yields shoot up tobacco prices way beyond the floor prices giving the farmers bigger profits.

Encarnacion said that in a recent meeting cigarette manufacturers and principal tobacco buyers agreed to the holding of the tripartite conference in September.

In the meeting were Bayan Elero, corporate director of Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMPMI), lawyer Carmen Herce of PMPMI, vice president Frank Tan of Fortune Tobacco Corp., president Rodolfo Salanga of Philippine Tobacco Institute, vice president Alex Uy of Universal Leaf Philippines Inc., Kendrick Pua of Isabela Tobacco Corp., and representatives of La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Co., Trans Manila, Mighty Corp. and other companies.

The NTA chief reported that tobacco farmers are extremely glad this season for posting a high quality crop that in turn earned big profits for them. It was learned that NTA tobacco regulation and production officers, as in the past, assisted the farmers during all the stages of tobacco growing to leaf curing, until the trading of their produce. – Teddy Molina