Representatives from the Northeastern Turkish Tobacco Trade Association submitted a letter to Sutin Klungsang, Minister of Defense, demanding the military to intensify efforts in apprehending smuggled cigarettes along the border areas, both on land in the eastern part and at sea in the south.
The association said these routes are crucial for smuggling illicit cigarettes from neighboring countries into Thailand, which currently account for nearly one-fourth of the market share.
The Northeastern tobacco farmers’ representative expressed that the tobacco industry is severely weakened due to the heavy incursion of illicit cigarettes, affecting the livelihoods of tobacco farmers reliant on quotas from the Tobacco Authority of Thailand.
The representative highlighted that legal cigarettes cannot compete with smuggled ones, and without an increase in quotas, tobacco farmers lose income that could have been earned during this period, as they rotate crops.
The Association’s members thus rely on the Ministry of Defense to issue directives to the various military forces for more efficient operations.
They recognize that state efforts to seize smuggled cigarettes are ongoing, but farmers believe that apprehending these goods at natural border crossings and maritime areas under military surveillance could significantly reduce their spread within the country. Once smuggled goods cross the border, distributing them throughout the country via postal packages or ground transport becomes easy.
Currently, about 15,000 households across provinces in the Northeast primarily cultivate Turkish tobacco. The planting season runs from November to April, with Turkish tobacco cultivation providing an average income of 16,000 baht per rai. This ensures farmers a stable income during the dry season, allowing for investment in the cultivation of other crops in the following rainy season and supporting family livelihoods. (NNT)
