site.btaEuropean Tobacco Growers Association Secretary General Highlights Bulgaria's Approach to Tobacco Issue as Positive Example to Europe

European Tobacco Growers Association (UNITAB) Secretary General Przemyslaw Noworyta said Friday that a battle for the future and livelihoods of tobacco farmers lies ahead. He took part in a meeting of UNITAB's Executive Committee at Grand Hotel Sofia, which was organized by the National Association of Tobacco Growers - 2010 (NAT-2010).

Noworyta highlighted Bulgaria as an example of a country which still cares greatly about tobacco. "We would like and I wish that European institutions and national governments would approach the tobacco issue as they do in Bulgaria," he said.

He said tobacco growers have for years been subject to discriminatory policies by the European Commission (EC). According to him, the EC does not recognize the scale of tobacco production in Europe.

"EC's whole hypocrisy is that, on the one hand, it is fighting against tobacco production and, on the other, this same Commission is signing a contract with the Mercosur (Southern Common Market) group, which is a threat to production in Europe because Brazil is the largest exporter of tobacco in the world, excluding China," Noworyta said. 

He added that a threat to European tobacco production also hides in the trade treaty with India, which opens the market for cheap imported raw material from the country.