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22nd Century Group (XXII) Accelerates Major Growing Program to Enable Implementation of New Zealand’s Reduced-Nicotine Content Tobacco Law
Seeding Program Will Produce Tobacco for Up To 2 Billion Sticks – The Entire Annual Cigarette Consumption of New Zealand – To Make Reduced Nicotine Content
About this update from 22nd Century Group, Inc
[{"type":"text","content":"Seeding Program Will Produce Tobacco for Up To 2 Billion Sticks – The Entire Annual Cigarette Consumption of New Zealand – To Make Reduced Nicotine Content Cigarettes Readily Available at National Scale VLN® Poised to Serve as the Foundational Cigarette for Reduced Nicotine Content Public Health Policies Worldwide BUFFALO, N.Y., Feb. 22, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 22nd Century Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: XXII), a leading biotechnology company dedicated to improving health with reduced nicotine tobacco, hemp/cannabis and hops advanced plant technologies, today announced it has accelerated a major seed cultivation project for its proprietary reduced nicotine content tobaccos to support local authorities as they work to implement New Zealand’s new reduced nicotine content law starting from this year. The seed will be used to rapidly scale the availability of 22nd Century's reduced nicotine content tobacco leaf to manufacture cigarettes compliant with New Zealand’s new reduced nicotine content law. “New Zealand’s groundbreaking new law will require a sizeable expansion of reduced nicotine content tobacco leaf production to address market needs. 22nd Century’s ultra-low nicotine content tobaccos are the only commercial scale naturally grown tobacco varieties ready to meet the New Zealand law today. We are moving immediately to ensure sufficient leaf capacity of our reduced nicotine content tobacco to serve the entire New Zealand market as the new law is implemented,” said John Miller, president of tobacco products for 22nd Century Group. 22nd Century’s proprietary reduced nicotine content tobacco varieties grow with 95% less nicotine than the commercial tobaccos used in making cigarettes for the New Zealand market. Significantly, 22nd Century’s non-GMO tobacco varieties are already compliant with the New Zealand law, which requires all combustible cigarettes to contain less than 0.8 mg of nicotine per gram of tobacco, inclusive of testing variance. 22nd Century’s expanded growing program, centered in the heart of the US tobacco belt, will produce additional seed sufficient for approximately 2 billion sticks, the entire annual New Zealand cigarette market volume. “New Zealand has taken the global lead in tobacco control through its new law, which will reduce the harms of smoking and improve public health and health equity, particularly among m...