Greek Tobacco Production in Decline

Oriental tobacco or Turkish tobacco is a highly aromatic, small-leafed variety of tobacco which is sun-cured. Tobacco was first introduced into Greece in the seventeenth century, shortly after it was introduced into Turkey. It is also grown elsewhere, notably in Macedonia and Turkey. Oriental tobacco covers about 20% of the total area devoted to tobacco growing in the world.

The problem with smoking is, of course, that it is very unhealthy, leading from COPD via lung cancer to death. That is why governments try to discourage smoking. Large sums of money are needed to treat, cure and prevent the negative effects of smoking.

Since Greece's entry into the EU it is subject to its rules. In 2010 a system was phased out where tobacco farmers in 12 EU countries including Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Italy were receiving around €300 million in subsidies. After the subsidies ended, tobacco farming across the EU sharply declined.

Ah, you might think, that is finally an effective policy by those bureaucrats in Brussels. But no, the old subsidy was converted into direct payments (Regulation (EU) No 1307/2013 simply gives money to the individual farmer) and rural development support (Regulation (EU) No 1309/2013 simply gives money to the region). The EU hoped to tempt farmers to change crops.

Did it work? A bit. Many Greek growers were reportedly abandoning tobacco farming in favour of other cash crops.

However, the decline of Greek production has mostly hurt the country’s Turkish minority, whose livelihood largely depends on tobacco growing. Some 200,000 ethnic Turks live - largely forgotten - in the north-eastern Greek province of western Thrace, which borders Turkey and Bulgaria, and 90 per cent are involved in tobacco production and trade.

Luckily Turkey has also forgotten about the plight of this Turkish minority and Greece won't face another invasion, like on Cyprus in 1974. Oh, wait.