Administrator Carlitos Encarnacion of the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) has welcomed the order of the province of Ilocos Sur for a supply of tobacco handmade paper.
Ilocos Sur Governor Deogracias Victor Savellano, in a letter to Encarnacion, had earlier placed an order of 100 reams of tobacco paper to beef up the provincial government’s paper supply.
Considered as a breakthrough in the paper manufacturing industry, NTA’s paper development project uses tobacco stalks to produce virgin pulp that is used to manufacture paper.
Industry sources said the use of tobacco pulp for the manufacture of paper will help conserve our forests and generate job oppurtunities, apart from saving foreign exchange in the country’s dollar reserve.
Traditionally, paper makers use locally grown timber or import pulp material for their paper production.
Encarnacion thanked the governor for his interest in tobacco handmade paper. The governor said “the quality of the paper (which) would be a good material for printing of vital documents” adding that his having placed an order is in support of the tobacco industry.
He also informed the governor that NTA will deliver to the province his ordered supply on a staggered basis throughout a six-month period.
He said that NTA’s paper production is done manually but promised to hasten deliveries by requiring a two shift-schedule and overtime work at the agency’s research and development center in Batac, Ilocos Norte.