United Nations: “World Tobacco Leaf Production will reach 7.1 Million Tonnes by 2010”

Guest, April 23, 1976, Melbourne: If there was exchange for that money, I think you’d be right.

Prabhupada: No money required. No money required. Simply one is required to work to produce food grain. That’s all. No money required. And God has given us so much land that we can produce food grain and we can keep cows’ milk, and from milk we derive so many rich, nutritious, full of vitamins foodstuff that the whole economic question solved immediately. But we are producing…. Instead of food grain, we are producing tobacco for smoking cigarette. We are producing coffee for going to hell. So how you can expect social reformation? In Africa I have seen. Instead of producing grain, they are producing coffee, tea, and keeping the cows for killing, making business to sell meat to other countries.

Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada (PSC): Around the world, a handful of globalized tobacco companies control virtually all tobacco sales.
Increased corporate concentration in the tobacco sector has brought 50% of the world’s cigarette market under the control of 4 multinationals.

These companies (and their share of global market as reported by BAT) are Philip Morris International (16%), British American Tobacco and its associates (16%), Japan Tobacco (11%) and Imperial Tobacco (6%).

The remaining market share for cigarettes is returned to the state-monopolies operating in China, principally the China National Tobacco Company (39%), the U.S. operations of Philip Morris through Altria (3%), with all other tobacco companies accounting for the remaining 11%. It is estimated that 5.6 trillion cigarettes are sold world-wide each year.

What is the number of deaths caused by tobacco? Annualy deaths only in United States, 435.000 every year.

Top Tobacco Consuming Nations (2009)

1. China … 3.11 million tonnes (38% of world total 8 million tonnes)
2. European Union … 0.91 million tonnes (10.2%)
3. India … 0.72 million tonnes (7.4%)
4. Russia … 0.64 million tonnes (6.4%)
5. United States … 0.63 million tonnes (6.2%)
6. Brazil … 0.33 million tonnes (3.3%)
7. Japan … 0.28 million tonnes (2.6%)
8. Indonesia … 0.27 million tonnes (2.4%)
9. Turkey … 0.24 million tonnes (2%)
10. Pakistan … 0.20 million tonnes (1.4%)