SHORTAGE OF TOBACCO.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 April 1920, Page 5

SHORTAGE OF TOBACCO.

ACUTE AUCKLAND POSITION. WORLD-WIDE CONDITION. An acute shortage of tobacco, both for the pipe and in the form of cigarettes, is being experienced in Auckland, and ns a result retail shops arc unable to supply all their customers with popular brands. As regards cigarettes, Englishmade are most in favor, and as manufacturers are unable to obtain sufficient leaf to satisfy the demand in Britain, the prospect of fully supplying colonial markets is remote. Before the war the Balkan States supplied a, great portion of the cigarette tobacco consumed in the Northern Hemisphere, but with the war their output, was severely curtailed. The United States of America also produced immense quantities- of the leaf, but during the war the planting of increased acreage in tobacco was forbidden, and the demand exceeded the supply. These factors, combined with the increased demands of India ana China, and the lack of shipping facilities, have produced a world-wide shortage. The manager of a well-known Auckland warehouse, when questioned as to tobacco supplies generally, stated that his linn, in common with others, had hundreds of orders unfulfilled. Where formerly the warehouse shelves were piled with packages and the bond store filled, they now had only a few pounds of tobacco. Country* people, he said, -ire feeling the shortage very acutely. The price of tobacco would remain the same, as far as he could judge, and if the retail shops would be content to sell from warehouse to customer without carrying large stocks, conditions would right themselves in time.