The Croatian tobacco processing company Hrvatski Duhani (HD), a member of the British American Tobacco Group, has begun negotiations on the new production season, state agency Hina said on Friday, citing the company's press release.

“The new season is the continuation of the successful purchase of tobacco in 2021 when a total of 81.6 million kuna (€10.8m) was paid out to tobacco producers, which is as much as 6 million kuna (€800k) more than in 2020,” HD said.

“This is the largest volume and value of production in the last four harvests despite major challenges last year when inclement weather, including drought, hail and frost, affected the quality and yield of tobacco. Given that HD had ensured the most favorable insurance terms, producers were paid more than 16 million kuna (€2.1m), the company said.

The company said that last year it had invested over 18 million kuna (€2.4m) in machine harvesting and that about 50 percent of tobacco had been harvested mechanically. New technology helped reduce costs and increase yields while at the same time helping producers to overcome the problem of labor shortage.

HD said its goal was to continue to “increase the quality and yield of tobacco and the profitability of producers in 2022.”

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)