Dear friends,

From my homeland Salta, Argentina, I am proud to join the 2024 World Tobacco Growers’ Day celebrations. We continue to find reasons to celebrate tobacco cultivation, and we must defend it with all the legitimate arguments that correspond to it.

I urge each one of you to spread the message in your respective countries:

We are tobacco growers. Many of us belong to families with multiple generations worth of experience in tobacco cultivation. We are proud of our social and economic contributions and want to be part of the future that provides a better quality of life in rural areas. We ask for support from our governments and urge them to recognize our work and positive impact.

In many countries, assistance for tobacco growers to develop farming businesses is denied. Production costs often exceed crop prices making it nearly impossible to earn decent margins. Our product faces one of the biggest regulatory pressures in the world.

Unfortunately, we continue to be subject to countless accusations falsely claiming we are not respecting the environment and apply illegal labour practices. The baseless claims of the anti-tobacco lobbies are also fuelling illicit trade activities that harm everyone involved.

I want to wish all of you a happy World Tobacco Growers’ Day and echo a message the that was spread around in our recent Annual Meeting:

Why do we grow tobacco? Because we love what we do!

José Javier Aranda
ITGA President 

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