More than 300 tobacco producers, mainly based in the South-West, are fighting to safeguard a tradition and know-how linked to a plant rightly singled out by public health. According to the European Commission, 335 die-hard French farmers produced 2,840 tonnes of tobacco on an area of 1,121 hectares, in 2022.
“Once purified, if the equivalent of a drop fell on our skin, it would cause cardiac arrest! » exclaims Charly Pairaud, co-founder of the company VDLV.