The National Tobacco Administration (NTA) has announced the start of the trading operations of Virginia tobacco for the cropping season 2024 – 2025 following the opening of the buying stations in Region 1 and Abra.
Administrator and CEO Belinda S. Sanchez said that the NTA’s extension workers have already checked the trading equipment and facilities of the two biggest tobacco trading outlets in the Ilocos region before the end of February.
The assigned NTA field workers have sealed all the weighing scales of the buying stations upon calibration using the weighing test certified by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Weighing scales of the accredited field canvassers were also calibrated. This is to ensure the accuracy of the weighing of all tobacco leaves brought about by the farmers to the trading centers.
Tobacco farmers, who planted tobacco as early as the last week of November 2024, have started delivering their flue-cured Virginia tobacco to the trading centers as it would take 60 days after transplanting before the first harvest of the matured tobacco leaves.
Trading warehouses of the Universal Leaf Philippines, Inc (ULPI) in Agoo, La Union; Candon City and Cabugao, both in Ilocos Sur; Currimao, Ilocos Norte; and Bangued, Abra; and the warehouse of Trans Manila Incorporated (TMI) in San Juan, Ilocos Sur, are now open to accommodate all the flue-cured Virginia tobacco leaves produced by the farmers.
To make the farmers be fully satisfied in dealing with their tobacco products in the buying stations, the assisting NTA extension workers will ensure that they (farmers) achieved the 4Ps in tobacco trading, which stands for “proper weighing, proper grading, proper documentation and prompt payment.”
At the start of the 2025 tobacco trading operations, trading centers purchased a kilo of prime class of flue-cured tobacco at P107.00 while field canvassers in the first district of Ilocos Sur bought the same class of cured tobacco as high as P125.00 per kilo.
With this development, Administrator Sanchez expects another golden season for tobacco farmers this year as the current tobacco buying prices are much higher than the approved tobacco floor prices during the tripartite conference in October 2023.
The approved tobacco floor prices of classes of all types of tobacco for this season are as follows: For flu-cured Virginia tobacco: Class AA – P97; A – P96; B – P95; C – P93; D – P85; E – P84; F1 – P75; F2 – 72 and R – P61. For Burley tobacco: Class A – P81; B – P78; C – P69; D – P58; E – P57; F – P49; and R – P39. For Native tobacco: High Grade – P81; Medium 1 – P70; Medium2 – P60; Low 1 –P50; and Low 2 – P38.
In the actual buying operations, the traders and the field canvassers usually purchase the tobacco leaves produced by the farmers at a price higher than the approved floor prices. (Freddie G. Lazaro/DA -NTA)