Is tobacco at risk?
Concerns about the future of growers are getting bigger and more real. The main question to ask yourself right now is whether the tobacco manufacture is about to die? Planters foretell specified a black scenario, all through global negotiations in Panama during the WHO COP10. It is at this event that key decisions concerning this manufacture can be made.
The WHO COP10 conference in Panama aims to limit tobacco consumption. It began on 5 February and will last until 10 February. Delegates from all corners of the globe are gathering to search agreement on the regulation of tobacco use. This in turn creates large unrest among growers, including Polish ones who fear for their future.
It is worth noting that, as Norbert Kaczmarczyk points out, presently tobacco is grown in respective of the 27 European Union countries, and Poland is 1 of the main players in this market.
Prohibition of tobacco cultivation, production and sale of e-cigarettes and nicotine sachets. These are the planet wellness Organization proposals. Planters and trade unionists alarm – this is the way to the collapse of the Polish tobacco manufacture and unemployment in this industry. https://t.co/3HzILETEX6
— Chronicle (@TVP3Krakow) October 23, 2023
Kaczmarczyk defends growers
Norbert Kaczmarczyk decided to act on behalf of the growers and to fight for their interests. The politician late addressed the Ministry of Agriculture and agrarian improvement with an interpelling on this issue. The associate asks openly what are the plans of the Ministry of Agriculture and agrarian improvement regarding participation in the conference and what action the ministry will take in the context of the possible rejection of proposals that may lead to a gradual ban on tobacco cultivation.
Kaczmarczyk notes that during the COP10 conference in Panama, the key decisions for the tobacco manufacture are to be taken. It recalls that tobacco growers and trade union representatives are informing that the results of the WHO negotiations and the European Commission's support can lead to the collapse of the industry.
According to him, the changes to be implemented include a gradual ban on tobacco cultivation, a ban on the production and sale of e-cigarettes and nicotine sachets, an increase in taxes on tobacco products and harmonisation of provisions on innovative products with those on conventional cigarettes.
The associate considers it peculiarly worrying that the European Commission powerfully supports the proposed changes proposed by the WHO.
Kołodziejczak responds
According to the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Michał Kołodziejczak, the European Union's position on COP10 was agreed earlier, as it was already in the autumn of 2023. Since cooperation with the WHO falls within the remit of the Ministry of Health, it was Poland that represented Poland at meetings with the European Commission, where the EU position as a full was discussed for this conference. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Agriculture and agrarian improvement worked with the Ministry of wellness to make the Polish position, taking into account the demands and solutions beneficial to Polish tobacco growers.
In the opinion of Kołodziejczak, both the WHO and the European Commission do not take action to gradually ban tobacco cultivation. Instead, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control focuses on reducing tobacco consumption and wellness impacts.
The Ministry of Agriculture and agrarian improvement considers that it is possible to improve the situation in the national tobacco sector in any script of development. In Poland there are factories belonging to 4 tobacco companies that could usage the natural tobacco of home production. However, most of this natural material utilized in the manufacture of tobacco products is imported and a crucial proportion of the home natural material is exported.
The Ministry conducts dialog with marketplace participants in order to strengthen cooperation between tobacco growers and tobacco producers in Poland.
WHO action ineffective?
Some commentators point out that the WHO's action so far to reduce tobacco usage appears to be ineffective.
Prior to the beginning of the debate, WHO published a Global advancement Report, in which it noted that there are around 1.2 billion tobacco users worldwide and 8.5 million people die annually from tobacco related causes. In 37 countries, the percent of men smoking exceeds 40% and in 22 countries the percent of women smoking exceeds 20%.
These data clearly show that the WHO's actions to date do not deliver the expected results. The question so arises as to whether the WHO's policies, namely to tighten the rules and reduce the size of the tobacco manufacture and to destruct alternatives to conventional cigarettes, are justified in any way.
On the eve of the launch of COP 10, an global squad of public wellness experts produced a study summarising WHO's current tobacco control policy. The experts were ruthless about the actions taken so far:
We attribute an E [negative – ed.] assessment of WHO's efforts to change trends in consumption of tobacco products to wellness professionals in the "WHO COP 10 study and to measure the accomplishment of FCTC targets".
