Tobacco produced by the 4.25 Tobacco Farm in Onsong, North Hamgyong Province, is rotting because the farm is unable to export its products abroad due to the closure of the Sino-North Korean border, Daily NK has learned.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Friday that with nobody purchasing the tobacco produced and processed on the farm this year, farmers are waging a “tearful battle” each day as they reprocess the tobacco “rotting in the dampness, and stacked up in the middle of snowy fields.”
According to the source, the 4.25 Tobacco Farm has long produced tobacco for official export to China, but exports have been set back this year with the border closed and trade suspended.
The packaged tobacco has reportedly been stacked in the middle of the farm and covered with a plastic sheet as there are no warehouses to properly store it. With sleet falling on the field, mold has formed on the tobacco. Farmers are reportedly removing the packaging and cutting out the mold-infested sections.
According to the source, the farmers are having a very difficult time because there seems to be “no end” to removing mold-infested parts on the tobacco.
“They reprocess and repackage the tobacco, but a few days later, there’s more mold, so it’s becoming a headache,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “The farmers are saying all of it could rot by after the midwinter season.”
Unwilling to throw away the tobacco it struggled to produce from spring to fall, the farm is desperately waiting for trade with China to open. Farm authorities, however, are at a loss at what to do. The farm also appears unable to provide rations to its farmers.
“Farm managers have held several emergency meetings to deal with the halt of tobacco exports through next year,” said the source. “When tobacco production for the year finishes, work begins on planting seeds for next year’s production. This year, however, with the tobacco rotting and farmers unable to receive their rations, the farm is gathering opinions on whether it would be appropriate to even cultivate tobacco next year.”
Farm managers agree that if this year’s situation continues into next year, everyone could starve to death. However, with the future unclear and the exact intentions of North Korean authorities impossible to know, the emergency meetings are producing little in the way of practical measures to deal with the issues at hand, the source said.
The source also noted that a growing number of farmers are suffering from frostbite to their hands and feet as they work in the wild highland fields in freezing temperatures of minus ten degrees.
