Small firm compliant with new regulation
Small firm compliant with new regulation
SEMARANG, West Java (JP): A small clove cigarette manufacturer
has said the government's new ruling on nicotine and tar levels
was achievable, denying it would hurt the country's clove
cigarette industry.
Henry Santoso, the owner of a home industry producing Djirak
clove cigarette in Semarang, told visiting reporters recently he
had successfully produced clove cigarette using locally grown
tobacco with a nicotine and a tar content compliant with the
level stipulated in the new governmental regulation.
"We have completed our production experiment using locally
grown tobacco and it was a success," said Henry.
He said the cigarette's nicotine and tar content had been
measured at cigarette manufacturers PT British American Tobacco
(BAT) Indonesia's laboratory in Jakarta.
Governmental decree No. 81/1999, issued in October last year,
requires cigarettes produced and sold in Indonesia to contain a
maximum 1.5 milligrams of nicotine and 20 milligrams of tar.
Henry said he could meet the nicotine and tar content
requirements set by the new regulation by using a special type of
cigarette filter and paper imported from Australia, and by making
his cigarettes slimmer.
"We will start small production of the cigarettes commercially
this year," Henry said.
During trial production last December, Henry said he had
managed to produce cigarettes with 19.3 milligram of tar and 0.87
milligram of nicotine.
Indonesian clove cigarettes usually contain about 50
milligrams of tar and 3 milligrams of nicotine. Regular cloveless
cigarettes have already complied with the standards set in the
new ruling.
Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Cigarette Producers
(Gappri) Ismanu Soemiran dismissed Henry's success, judging the
laboratory tests conducted on the cigarette to be invalid.
"The laboratory report came from PT BAT Indonesia -- a party
that is not independent in this matter," he said.
"Djirak story is part of a campaign by multinational cigarette
producers operating in Indonesia who want to take over clove
cigarette's dominant market share here," he added.
Djirak was such a small producer that its success could not be
used as a reference point, added Ismanu.
Henry currently produces 1.2 million Djirak cigarettes per
month using only one machine.
He started his cigarette business in 1987, producing 10
million cigarettes per month. Due to stiff competition with
larger cigarette manufacturers he has gradually had to lower
production to its current level.
Ismanu said the new ruling was in favor of regular cloveless
cigarette manufacturers and would hurt the local clove cigarette
industry.
"Cloves make a cigarette high-tar while locally grown tobacco
has a high nicotine content. Tobacco with a low nicotine level
has to be imported from other countries," Ismanu said.
He said the association had recently formally rejected the new
ruling in a letter sent to the government. (udi)