Could Chinese leaf producers learn anything from foreign planting management and curing technologies?
They have been learning all the time. The STMA is conducting a huge amount of research and there have been joint ventures by most of the multinationals somewhere in China. The Chinese government is very keen on learning from good experiences that went well abroad. Chinese cigarettes have properties that distinguish them from Western cigarettes; for example, they have more oriental tobacco content. Could they ever become more popular in the West? I had a meeting in May 2004 with growers in eastern Europe. For political reasons many oriental tobacco growers have lost their national markets for example in the former Yugoslavia and they were very worried because certain countries in that region used to produce cigarettes with as much as 50 per cent oriental tobacco in them. Their hope is that China will switch from British blend to American blend because British blend is basically only Virginia, but American blend has some oriental as well as Burley. If the Chinese switch to American blend
