Business Lexington reported yesterday (link removed; document offline) that there’s a growing concern among tobacco growers that e-cigarettes could stifle demand for future crops. According to tobacco grower Todd Clark, “The reason I think so now — and this could change — [is] currently it appears there’s minimal regulation on that versus traditional cigarettes.”
You might note that this is exactly the scenario I predicted just a few days ago in my article about the future history of the e-cigarette industry. In this article, I outlined a potential future in which the government-owned Chinese tobacco industry, spurred by the enormous profit potential of providing e-liquids to tobacco companies, undercuts American tobacco growers and becomes the world’s largest exporter of tobacco products. This scenario seems entirely plausible to me because China already produces the majority of the e-liquid for the e-cigarette industry.
Although it’s sometimes difficult to tell considering all of the additives present in cigarettes, American growers of Burley tobacco produce what’s generally considered a very high quality product. However, you don’t need a great tobacco leaf if you’re only growing it to extract the nicotine, and that’s what has American tobacco growers worried. According to the article, you don’t even need tobacco for nicotine extraction. Many plants contain nicotine. Some examples include tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants. However, I’m unable to find any information suggesting that plants other than tobacco are grown commercially for nicotine.
A representative from R. J. Reynolds responded to the article, essentially stating that e-cigarettes currently represent an extremely small part of the very large American tobacco industry. For many, though, the writing appears to be on the wall; at its current rate of growth, it will be a very short time before demand for e-cigarettes outstrips the demand for conventional tobacco cigarettes — and cigarette companies have no reason to be bothered by that. Reynolds’ own website states quite plainly that the company “doesn’t employ farm workers or grow its own tobacco.” In other words, it doesn’t matter who supplies the raw materials — and in the current industry climate, it’s far more profitable to sell e-cigarettes than it is to sell tobacco cigarettes.
One thing is for certain: American tobacco growers are likely to be among the first in line when the FDA’s proposed e-cigarette regulations become open for public discussion. Tobacco growers have a vested interest in making sure that the e-cigarette doesn’t put their livelihood at stake, and it’s hard to fault them for that.
