Addiction to snuff tobacco made Petter Svensson into an entrepreneur in snuff-production in Laos. The snuff-production isn’t his main business, he is Industry Division Manager at Burapha Agroforestry Co, Ltd, but to satisfy his addiction he had to set up his own production.
“I have used snuff for many years. If I dint get my snuff it like walking on needles. I ordered snuff from Sweden but it was always a bit awkward and expensive, and you never knew when it would arrive” he tells di.se
The difficulties by getting snuff to Laos made him experimenting. It hardly can be rocket science, making snuff, he told himself,
But rocket science or not, it took two years of experiments and failure before he had his Hallelujah-moment.
“The secret is mixing the right quantity of tobacco with the right quantity of water. Then pasteurise it until you have the perfect mix of tobacco and water,” Petter Svensson tells.
When the quality was right, he started wondering if there was a commercial marked for the product. He found a premise to set up production, bought equipment – among that a prober snuff-oven – and started to produce snuff big scale. It become a company and a brand named “Pioneer Snuff”.
“It has become a very good product. But being a small newcomer, we can’t compete with the big brands in Sweden and USA. We do sell some to USA, but otherwise our market is Thailand and Laos. Exporting to Sweden is not possible. It would become to expensive with duties and taxes,” Petter Svensson tells.
Pioner Snuff has two full-time employees. At peak times in production Petter Svensson hires extras. Best outlet for Pioneer Snuff is the Swedish bakery in Vientiane. Scandinavians are still the main customers. So far Petter Svensson has had no success in making the locals addicted to his snuff, even some of his colleagues at
Burapha sawmill likes to have a test every time they see him.
