According to Dr. Steven Gay from the University of Michigan, puffing away on cigarettes and cigars causes up to half a million American deaths each year from smoking-related diseases. This makes smoking the number 1 cause of premature mortality in the U.S. Yet 47 million Americans continue to risk their lives each day by lighting up.
Health risks from tobacco are not limited to cigarette smoking. India is second only to China in harvesting tobacco, yet some 77% of India's total tobacco output is used to make non-cigarette products such as tobacco pastes, chewing tobacco, snuff and cigars. According to the Ludhiana Tribune, tobacco usage in India claims more than 800,000 lives annually.
Consumption
Even the growing awareness of health risks isn't stopping global tobacco consumption, particularly in the fast-growing BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India & China). In addition to leading the world in tobacco consumption as shown below, China is also the world's foremost cigarette-consuming country.
Top Tobacco Consuming Nations (2005)
- China ... 2.66 million tonnes (38% of world total 7 million tonnes)
- European Union ... 0.71 million tonnes (10.2%)
- India ... 0.52 million tonnes (7.4%)
- Russia ... 0.44 million tonnes (6.4%)
- United States ... 0.43 million tonnes (6.2%)
- Brazil ... 0.23 million tonnes (3.3%)
- Japan ... 0.18 million tonnes (2.6%)
- Indonesia ... 0.17 million tonnes (2.4%)
- Turkey ... 0.14 million tonnes (2%)
- Pakistan ... 0.10 million tonnes (1.4%)
Production
Tobacco production will continue to expand to meet the demand of nicotine-addicted consumers responsible for tobacco industry profits. Globally, tobacco output rose from 4.2 million tonnes in 1971 to an annual average of 6.9 million tonnes in 1998-2000. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations projects that world tobacco leaf production will reach 7.1 million tonnes by 2010, although tobacco leaf production in developed nations including the U.S. will fall.
Top Tobacco Leaf Producing Nations (2005)
- China ... 2.64 million tonnes (39.6% of world total 6.7 million tonnes)
- India ... 0.64 million tonnes (9.6%)
- Brazil ... 0.55 million tonnes (8.3%)
- United States ...0.47 million tonnes (7%)
- European Union ... 0.31 million tonnes (4.6%)
- Turkey ... 0.23 million tonnes (3.5%)
- Zimbabwe ... 0.22 million tonnes (3.3%)
- Indonesia ... 0.14 million tonnes (2.2%)
- Malawi ... 0.12 million tonnes (1.8%)
- Russia ... 0.09 million tonnes (1.4%)
Developing nations generated about 79% of global tobacco leaf production in 2000. According to the FAO, developing countries will account for 87% of world tobacco by 2010. China is projected to remain the world's largest tobacco producer.
And The Winners Are...
World tobacco leaf exports from 1998-2000 averaged 1.98 million tonnes per year which the FAO expects to grow by 1% to 2.2 million by 2010.
Today developing nations are responsible for almost 65% of global tobacco exports, while developed countries account for the remainder. Of the countries below, the domestic economies of Zimbabwe and Malawi depend most heavily on tobacco exports to the rest of the world.
Top Tobacco Leaf Exporting Nations
- European Union ... 18.1% of world total
- Brazil ... 16.6%
- United States ... 9.9%
- Zimbabwe ... 9.1%
- Turkey ... 6.5%
- China ... 5.6%
- India ... 5.5%
- Malawi ... 5.3%
- Russia ... 3.9%
- Other European countries ... 2.0%
Because cigarette manufacturers have developed new processing technologies that use lower-quality tobacco leaves, developing countries are more competitive and can increase their shares of the world tobacco market. Regardless of superior tobacco quality, higher production costs mean that tobacco exports from developed countries like the U.S. cost twice as much as tobacco shipped from developing nations.
But let's not forget the health-related costs of tobacco.
In international trade, the biggest winners may be the companies that find the most effective alternative strategies and medicines to reduce the number of tobacco-related deaths globally. After all, why can't the same progress in fighting cancer be made as was in containing the deadly AIDS epidemic?
Sources
This analysis is based on latest statistics from the US Census Bureau - Foreign Trade Statistics and CIA World Factbook as of the date of article publication.
