Just imagine if, on a clear night, all the smokers around the world got together, lighting their cigarettes and blowing smoke out into the air. If you could look down from the sky at that moment, you would see a spectacular Milky Way of 1.3 billion tiny, luminous spotlights – one for each smoker.

Behind this man-made Milky Way is an enormous tobacco industry, contributing to the economies of more than 150 countries and providing jobs for 100 million people around the world.

In Africa, this industry plays an important role in many national economies. In Malawi, it employs at least 20 percent of the national labor force and contributes 6 percent of total GDP. In Zimbabwe, Africa's largest tobacco producer, it accounts for more than half of agricultural exports, 30 percent of total exports and 10 percent of GDP.

The Industrial chain

Like coffee and tea, tobacco is widely planted in Africa and brings huge revenues to local governments. Some countries have designated tobacco as a strategic crop and a means to escape poverty. Farmers are often encouraged to grow it instead of food crops. But are the gains masking problems within the sector?

In August 2010, Madagascar's second largest tobacco producer Sipromad Group announced a new investment of 10 million euros ($7.92 million) for the next three years. Local media believe the move will help break Imperial Tobacco's (IMT) decades-long monopoly in the country's tobacco market.

In order to compete with the IMT, a multinational company headquartered in the UK and the fourth largest cigarette producer in the world, Sipromad is seeking to cooperate with the world's second largest producer, British American Tobacco (BAT). According to Madagascan newspaper La Vérité, by introducing a new production line, Sipromad will be able to produce BAT licensed cigarettes locally. (Current laws state only local producers are allowed to import international cigarette brands.)

In cigarette manufacturing, business is mainly controlled by international companies. For instance, BAT's branches cover 23 countries across the continent, including Africa's most important tobacco economies like Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

A report published in 2003 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reveals that most of the tobacco-exporting companies in Malawi are agents or divisions of multinational companies based in the United States or in Europe; and the three largest ones accounted for nearly 90 percent of the country's total tobacco exports.

FAO's report finds that tobacco auctions, which are the principle method of selling the product, remain a buyers' market in many African tobacco-exporting countries. That means tobacco growers, the largest group of people employed within the continent's tobacco industry, stay at the bottom of the pile, receiving very little for their crop: only 6 cents per kilo for a product worth upward of $2. (See table)

A double-edged sword

 Despite its contribution to Africa's employment and economy, the tobacco industry has been come under fire from a worldwide campaign against smoking. In 2003, a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was established under the World Heath Organization (WHO), calling on signatory countries to implement measures to reduce tobacco use. To date, 168 governments, including 45 from Africa, have signed the treaty.

The FCTC and increasingly health-conscious populations have driven a decline in demand for tobacco around the world, which has had an impact on cigarette manufacturing and tobacco growing.

Statistics revealed by Africa Investor magazine show that in Kenya, cigarette production dropped by 8.9 percent to 4.3 billion sticks during the first four months in 2010, compared to the output of 4.7 billion sticks in the same period last year. And the 2009 figure also showed a fall of 6.4 percent from 2008.

António Abrunhosa, CEO of the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA), is particularly worried about unemployment that might result from a decline in the industry. He said countries depending heavily on tobacco as a cash crop would face losses of millions of jobs if demand is significantly reduced.

However, Wang Shiyong, Senior Health Specialist at the World Bank's Beijing office, reasons that if people quit smoking, they will spend their money elsewhere, which will enhance demand for other products and hence new job opportunities.