Farmers Get Assurance from Mighty Corp

In the midst of fear that tobacco prices and demand for the yellow leaf would dive as a result of the new excise tax law on cigarettes, farmers in Pangasinan and the Ilocos provinces heave a sigh of relief after Bulacan-based cigarette manufacturer Mighty Corporation (Mighty Corp) has announced that they will serve as a sure market for their products market this year.

the National Federation of Tobacco Growers and Cooperatives (NFTGC) President Mario Cabasal said that members of their organization and their families welcome the great news that Mighty Corp has committed to  buy at least 10 million kilograms of tobacco leaves at an average price of P70 per kilo and buy all the excess tobacco leaves that farmers could not sell to other buyers.

Cabasal said, “We limited to minimum areas fields planted to tobacco last year in anticipation of depressed demand due to the scheduled implementation of the sin tax,” Cabasal said.  Good thing, some farmers were able  to sell part of their low-grade harvests to Mighty Corporation in 2013.”

He added that this assurance of an alternative market, besides other tobacco companies, will again inspire their members to devote larger areas to the cultivation of Ilocandia’s most important cash crop. It was reported that many farmers in the Ilocos Region shifted to planting yellow corn which offers a profit lower than what they get from selling tobacco.

“With Mighty’s assurance that the company will buy all the unsold tobacco harvested by farmers, we can also be sure that unlike in the past, prices will stay high even after the holiday season. Price cut downs on harvests after the Holy Week was an old practice of middlemen from Ilocos Norte to Pangasinan,” Cabasal added.

Might Corp., the only fully Filipino-owned cigarette company in the country, has also initiated programs that directly benefits tobacco farmers like the donation of support farm implements like irrigation pumps and tractors; sponsoring new 100 college scholar grants for the sons and daughters of tobacco farmers;  and the institutional support for the annual search for outstanding tobacco farmers and cooperatives.