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Big China Tobacco Company Opens Office In Cary

A tobacco farmer in Rockingham County, NC.
Jim Dollar via Flickr, Creative Commons

A Chinese tobacco company has announced plans to open its North America headquarters in North Carolina.  The state Agriculture Department has worked hard to bolster trade relations with China.  And it’s paid off.

China Tobacco Internationalinformed Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler this week that they will be opening offices in Cary.  Peter Thornton,  a spokesman for International Marketing at the Ag Department, says North Carolina competed with several states to win over this Chinese tobacco monopoly. 

“There are more smokers in China than there are people in the United States.  China is a growth market, they are increasingly looking for high quality tobaccos which are produced in North Carolina," Thornton said.

China has surpassed Japan as North Carolina’s biggest tobacco importer, purchasing $157 million dollars worth of tobacco in the first quarter of this year.

Madam Zhanhua Liang, President of US China Tobacco International, said in a statement that North Carolina was the best place for their company.

"I think it is better to be closer to the farmers, and this department and the local governments helped us to make the decision to move here," she said.

Thornton says the US was the last major tobacco supplier where China did not have an office.

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of WUNC's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at WUNC as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda’s work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.
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