Eight major European tobacco producers will ask the European Union's farm commissioner to extend existing subsidies to the sector until 2013, reports Reuters.

Tobacco growing countries in the EU will propose to EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel a partial decoupling of the sector subsidies until 2013. "(This) solution … would allow us to avoid severe consequences … mainly… where the socio-economic fabric is frayed, by providing aid independently from production…," said Italy's Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia in a statement.
He was speaking after a meeting on Tuesday with ministries and sector representatives from Bulgaria, Greece, France, Poland, Romania, Spain and Hungary. Scrapping subsidies would hit the sector, thousands of people working for it and undermine development of rural areas, the statement said.
The EU spends about EUR 321 million a year to subsidise tobacco growing, a fraction of the annual EU farm budget, worth around EUR 44 billion. (pi)