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Domestic and international tobacco growers are gathering in Jakarta today for a two-day meeting aimed at formulating a strategy to fight against the adoption of a ban on flavored cigarettes under the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The Indonesian Tobacco Alliance (Amti) and the International Tobacco Growers Association, a US-based nonprofit growers association, on Sunday urged the Indonesian government and the governments of neighboring countries not to adopt Articles 9 and 10 of the framework that effectively ban flavored tobacco products.

Sudaryanto, the chairman of Amti, which organized the meeting, said banning flavored cigarettes could cost Indonesian growers up to $450 million per year and threaten millions of jobs.

He said an independent US ban on flavored cigarettes in place since last year had already cost growers here $270 million.

“If other countries across the globe take the same step, then we will bear bigger losses than that,” Sudaryanto said during an interview with the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

“[Today] we will hold a meeting among tobacco growers and buyers in Asia, along with the ITGA, to discuss the plan to ban flavored cigarettes. Our goal is to urge the Indonesian government and other governments to think about the workers involved in the tobacco industry.”

Growers from countries such as Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines are expected to attend the event.

Indonesia produces about 250 billion cigarettes a year, and some 93 percent are clove cigarettes, or kretek . Exports of clove cigarettes to the United States were estimated to be $450 million to $500 million a year prior to the ban.

The US Food and Drug Administration banned flavored cigarettes in September, saying they encouraged younger people to smoke.

The Indonesian government has filed a formal trade dispute with the World Trade Organization in April, claiming the ban was protectionist because it did not include menthol cigarettes, most of which are produced in the United States.

There are 1.5 million clove farmers across the country and 3.5 tobacco farmers, based on Amti’s data.

ITGA president Roger Quarles said banning flavored cigarettes would cause the industry enormous pain.

“This will not only impact Indonesia, but also world’s cigarette industries,” Quarles said.