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| Eric Tabanou, director of the France Tabac, factory in the Dordogne region of southwest France, said keeping the country's last tobacco processing site open became unviable. (AFP Photo/Mehdi FEDOUACH) |
Sarlat-la-Caneda (France) (AFP) - Gerard Chanquoi looks sadly at the conveyor belts of France's sole remaining tobacco processing factory as they whirl for the last times ahead of its final closure, a victim of changed economic times and a different public health landscape.
Anti-smoking
campaigners may cheer its demise, but for its workers and local tobacco
growers, the closure of the France Tabac factory after 34 years of operation is
a devastating blow to the Dordogne region of southwest France.
"It's
a fine mess," lamented Chanquoi, 61, who has worked for over 30 years at
the factory in the town of Sarlat-la-Caneda.
"It
makes you well up a bit, it's hard. I am at the end of my career, but for my
friends... who have a decade of career ahead of them, it is tough," he
added.
In its
heyday after opening in 1985 in one of France's main tobacco growing regions,
the factory was a mainstay of the local economy, extending over 10 hectares (25
acres) and processing 20,000 tonnes of tobacco leaves from France and Europe
every year.
"Our
know-how is recognised across all of Europe," said Chanquoi, looking
ruefully at an almost empty warehouse where only years ago bundles of processed
tobacco would have stretched to the ceiling.
"This
used to be a hive of activity."
The
homegrown tobacco used in cigarettes like Gauloises, beloved of French film
icons and philosophers, used to be a symbol of France.
But the
country's last cigarette factory, la Seita in Riom in the Puy-de-Dome region,
closed in 2017 and the Gauloises brand is now produced in Poland.
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Inspecting
tobacco leaves at the France Tabac plant,
which will close down for good this
month. (AFP Photo/
Mehdi FEDOUACH)
|
The number
of smokers in France remains above the average for a developed country, with 32
percent of adults aged between 18-75 smoking in 2018, according to official
figures.
But the
number of people describing themselves as daily smokers has fallen sharply in
recent years as the price of cigarettes has risen.
'Doomed'
The
production line at the factory in Sarlat-le-Caneda finally came to a halt just
before midday on Monday. Some workers remain in the plant this week for a final
clean-up before a meeting with the director next week ahead of being laid-off.
The
factory's director Eric Tabanou said that announcing the closure to the
employees was painful, while insisting there was no other option.
"We
stood up in front of 200 employees. It was dramatic... The factory was on
borrowed time, the end was inevitable," Tabanou said.
Trouble
began in 2010 when the European Union announced that, as part of its drive to
cut smoking, tobacco producers would no longer receive subsidies from the bloc.
"Tobacco
production diminished from year to year and certain products were not in line
with the demands of the market," Tabanou said.
"Also,
we had to submit to increased competition from tobacco manufacturers who would
do anything to save a single cent."
In 2016,
the factory was processing over 5,300 tonnes of tobacco a year, far below the
20,000 tonnes processed in the 2000s.
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Patrick
Maury, a tobacco grower in Mazeyrolles, France, said he hopes to
find new
buyers for his crop. (AFP Photo/Mehdi FEDOUACH)
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"French
production makes up just one percent of Europe's output, and it is
doomed," Tabanou said.
French
tobacco will now be processed outside the country, notably in Croatia.
"It is
the turning of a page in our agricultural history," Jean-Jacques de
Peretti, the mayor of Sarlat-la-Caneda, said when the closure was announced in
late August.
'New
opportunities'
But some
producers hope that all is not lost, and say they will focus on the high-end
market and also producing the raw material needed to create vaping cartridges.
"It is
a tough blow, but we will try and find new opportunities," said Patrick
Maury, who grows tobacco and also runs a dairy farm in Mazeyrolles, around 35
kilometres from Sarlat.
"Along
with my son, we need this crop to live, it makes up 40 percent of our
revenues," he said.
Laurent
Testut, head of the local Perigord Tabac cooperative, said the industry had
managed to adapt before, for example by moving to lighter tobacco blends in line
with changing tastes and regulations.
"We
risk having to come closer to world prices, but it is up to us to focus on
production niches. We have some leads already," he said.
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