Mighty Competition in Tobacco North

More Tobacco farmers in the Northern Luzon Region (Pangasinan, Ilocos provinces, and the Cagayan Valley) are seen to increase their yields as Filipino owned Cigarette and Tobacco manufacturer Mighty Corporation assured them that as a new major player in the tobacco industry will be buying more tobacco leaves in 2014.

Mighty Competition in Tobacco North

“It is high time true competition can now happen in the tobacco industry with prices being dictated in the past by a monopoly imposed by the merger of the two giants in domestic cigarette manufacturing,” said the President of the National Federation of Tobacco Growers and Cooperatives Inc., Ernesto Calindas.

The Calindas issued the statement after Mighty Corporation Executive Vice President Oscar P. Barrientos said that Mighty Corporation will buy more tobacco leaves in 2014 from farmers in Regions 1 and 2.

The local tobacco industry, from the previous year, only had one outlet for Virginia and Burley tobacco leaves that is mainly used for cigarette manufacturing, and another buyer for export-quality leaves.

“Under those circumstances, we had to sell dried tobacco at prices the buyers offered without any other option to sell to a serious competitor,” explained Calindas.

Calindas also added that Mighty Corporation has been the anchor of tobacco farmers in the sale of their low-grade tobacco leaves.

"The prices were fixed at a range of P45 a kilo for the low-end leaves to P80 for top quality leaves,” he recalled.

“This time we have greater assurance and more reasonable pricing will be now expected with Mighty Corporation’s announcement that it will buy more tobacco leaves in 2014,” the National Federation of Tobacco Growers and Cooperatives Inc. added.

Mighty Corporation recently has been put in the limelight when an established competitor(s) sought a congressional investigation over its sudden rise as a tobacco player and aggressively grabbing up the markets of previously low-priced cigarettes with brands identified with Philippine Morris Fortune Tobacco Corporation (PMFTC).

From a minimal 5% share of the domestic market, Mighty Corporation cigarettes sky rocketed to 20% in less than a year since the new tobacco sin tax took into effect in 2013.

Mighty Corporation Executives asserted that reasonably priced quality products, smartly packaged and creatively sold were behind the all-Filipino company’s success.