Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1926 > Special Committee on Home Grown Tobacco Duties > Interim Report and Final Report - Home Grown Tobacco Duties

APPENDIX III.

PRECIS OF EVIDENCE PRESENTED BY MR. G. N. KELLER, TOBACCO EXPERT, DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND AGRICULTURE.

Subjects:  (1) The relative importance of the tobacco-growing industry.

(2) The amount and nature of the employment given by tobacco-growing.

(3) Any probable development in the demand for tobacco grown and manufactured in the Saorstát.

Attention is directed to the memorandum of evidence which was given by the writer before the Commission on Agriculture in January, 1923, and to the First Interim Report of that Commission dated 9th February, 1923. As these documents deal rather fully with all matters relating to tobacco-growing in Ireland up to the year 1923, it may suffice to explain the development which has occurred since that date.

The year 1923 marked the end of a twenty-year period during which commercial experiments in tobacco-growing under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture were carried out on a limited scale by selected persons with the assistance of rebates and direct grants-in-aid from the Government. In April, 1924, the present Government confined to Irish-grown tobacco the preference, amounting to one-sixth of the duty, which had applied since September, 1919, to all tobacco grown within the British Empire. Since 1923 the tobacco duties have not been altered and tobacco growers in the Saorstát have received no assistance or relief from the Government other than that afforded by the preference in the duty amounting to 1s. 4d. per lb., and by the excise allowance of 2d. per lb. which is intended to cover the cost to growers of excise supervision Moreover, as the Department have exercised no control over tobacco-growing since the end of the 1923 crop year it may be said that tobacco-growing in the Saorstát passed from the experimental to the industrial stage at the beginning of the 1924 crop year.

(1) The extent of the industry in the two years of its existence (1924 and 1925) is indicated by the figures with reference to the number of growers engaged and by the total acreage of the crop in those years as shown in Table III. herewith.

(2) The amount and nature of the employment afforded by tobacco-growing is virtually the subject of the memorandum of evidence given before the Commission on Agriculture.

More recent figures with reference to costs of production are contained in the attached Tables Nos. IV. and V.

(3) Any probable development in the demand for tobacco grown and manufactured in the Saorstát should be discussed with great reserve, for the reason that surprising developments have occurred since tobacco-growing was last made the subject of a Government enquiry.

The Commission on Agriculture, in their First Interim Report, gave their considered opinion as to the fundamental requirements for the establishment of a tobacco-growing industry, and when the preference of one-sixth of the duty was confined to home-grown tobacco, the writer expressed the opinion that this measure should at least have the effect of enabling existing tobacco growers to produce the crop on an industrial basis without the aid of further direct subsidies. The latter opinion was based on the assumption that if experimental growers could produce tobacco profitably in 1914 with the aid of a direct grant of £25 per acre or approximately 7d. per lb., they should be able to continue after 1923 with indirect assistance amounting to 1s. 4d. per lb. represented by the existing preference in the duty exclusive of the excise allowance of 2d. per lb. which has applied to Irish-grown tobacco since the year 1907.

But notwithstanding the considerable preference in the duty and the facts that the growers had in 1923 gained ten years’ experience and had paid for their curing barns, tobacco-growing has languished since that date almost to the point of extinction. Strangely enough, the cause of this decline may be attributed entirely to the facts that Irish manufacturers refuse to purchase Irish-grown tobacco and that its sale in Great Britain is not remunerative to the producers.

The development of a demand for Irish-grown tobacco would, therefore, appear to depend upon—(1) the possibility of altering the present attitude of home manufacturers, or (2) the possibility of making the sale of Irish-grown tobacco in Great Britain remunerative to the producers. There would appear to be a demand for Irish-grown tobacco in Great Britain as a result of the preference of two shillings in the duty which all Empiregrown tobacco now enjoys in British markets.

The technical difficulties involved in the establishment of a reliable and remunerative market for Irish-grown tobacco are explained at some length in the publications listed below.

Leaflets and Reprinted Reports on Tobacco-Growing in Ireland.

Report; General—Reprinted from Department’s Journal, Vol. IX., No. 2.

Leaflet (K): Marketing.

TABLE I.

Results of the first series of Commercial Experiments in Tobacco-Growing. Showing the number of experimenters and the acreage, yield and prices of the finished tobacco grown in each of the years from 1904 to 1913 inclusive. (This table refers to the large scale experiments only, no account being taken therein of experiments conducted under the Department’s small growers’ scheme, or experiments not carried out under the Department’s supervision.)

TABLE II.

Results of the second series of Commercial Experiments in Tobacco-Growing. Showing the number of experimenters, and the acreage, yield and prices of the finished tobacco grown in each of the years from 1910_to 1913 inclusive.

(This table refers to the small Growers (Rehandling) experiments only, no account being taken therein of the large scale experiments conducted by the Department, or experiments not carried out under the Department’s supervision.)

TABLE III.

Results of the third series of Commercial Experiments in Tobacco-Growing. Showing the number of the experimenters and the acreage, yield and prices of the finished tobacco grown in each of the years from 1914 to 1923 inclusive.

(This Table refers to the Development Scheme (Rehandling) Experiments only, no account being taken therein of experiments not carried out under the Department’s supervision.)

TABLE IV.

TOBACCO-GROWING IN IRELAND.

Showing details of the Cost of Growing and Re-handling, per acre and lb.; and the yield of Saleable Tobacco per acre in respect of Heavy Dark Pipe Tobacco grown by Mr. B. Anderson (a representative small-scale Grower selected to keep accounts) and rehandled by Sir Nugent Everard.

TABLE V.

Showing details of the Cost of Growing and Rehandling, per acre and lb.; and the yield of Saleable Tobacco per acre in respect of Heavy Dark Pipe Tobacco, grown and rehandled by Sir Nugent Everard (a large-scale Grower and Rehandler).

* Particulars of the Kilkenny experiment in 1907 are not included as almost the entire Crop grown on 6 acres estimated at 10,400 lbs. was accidentally destroyed by fire.

* The produce of 65¼ acres which was destroyed by fire at Adare is not included in the total yield.

† The average in this column is calculated on the quantity of tobacco sold and the acreage on which it was grown. See Note *.