—_—_ 
“TOBACCO PRODUCTION AND TRADE 
OF 
MADAGASCAR (MALAGASY REPUBLIC) 
So 
Coll { 
By/Albert B,| Davis | 
Tobacco Division 
Introduction 
Madagascar, now part of the Malagasy Republiccreatedon June 26, 1960, 
has been increasingly a producer of light type tobaccos and, with special 
access to the Common Market as an AssociatedOverseas Country (AOC), has 
competitive advantages in international trade, In addition, with independence, 
the country plans to develop its tobacco growing potential further, This would 
serve both to earn foreign exchange and also to limit imports of tobacco used 
for manufacture. 
Light types of tobacco grown for commercial sale have been planted 
since 1920 under French Monopoly influence. Output of flue-cured, planted 
in 1959 for the first time, has grown about sixfold since 1960. An indication 
of growing interest in tobacco is establishment of a cigarette factory in 1956, 
with increasing exports of cigarettes, by the year, since 1958, 
Tobacco can be grown over a considerable portion of the large island, 
which is off the southeast coast of Africa and 1,000 miles long by 300 miles 
wide. Less than 10 percent of the land is now under cultivation, Tobacco is 
a high-value-per-acre crop, which competes for land with cotton, rice, many 
vegetables, various fruits, peanuts, manioc which supplements rice,-and per- 
haps other crops, 
Lack of large capital investment, necessary for commercial-type tobacco 
growing, is one factor which may limit expansion, In addition, while possi- 
bility of export to France and the European Economic Community (EEC) may 
give impetus to enlarged production, it is difficult to estimate demand in the 
EEC for Madagascar leaf, There it would compete with tobaccos from 
several other French AOC's, as well as tobacco from Greece, Turkey, and 
other countries with which France has trade agreements including unmanu- 
factured tobacco. 
Also, small growers of Madagascar can be expected to be slow in chang- 
ing types and in making shifts among competing crops to produce commercial 
tobacco; however, some of the large farms in the Tsiribihina Basin can 
make shifts--and have done so--to flue-cured and burley, 
Little expansion, however, can be expected in growth of Maryland type 
tobacco--raised commercially in Madagascar since 1932--since the world 
market for this type is now declining as compared with demand for flue-cured 
and burley, On the other hand, domestic demand for burley and flue-cured 
is also limited, so that a large part of any increased production will probably 
have to be offered in foreign markets, 
