The tobacco industry around the world has been threatened in many different ways, including several aspects related to the growing and production of tobacco itself. These pressures can also be understood to be a good indication of new areas of opportunity, challenging tobacco companies to develop new products that are more acceptable to the consumer and to deal with specific legislation and regulations. Foreseeing this challenging world scenario, back in the 1980s, Souza Cruz started its Tobacco Breeding Program aimed at developing new tobacco cultivars and/or hybrids able to tackle the major field production problems and the specific requirements of domestic and export markets. This breeding program is based only on conventional cross breeding and includes several projects such as:· Resistance to soil borne diseases (including Granville wilt, root knot nematodes, Black Shank);· Resistance to viruses (TMV, PVY, TSWV, CMV);· Improving yield (kg/ha);· Quality for domestic and for export markets;· Stress tolerance (cold injury; early flowering);· TSNA reduction. Along with the task of developing new cultivars to build up a superior breeding stock that ensures competitive advantage and tobacco growing continuity, the Breeding Program has also played a very important role in other areas such as contributing to the reduction of agrochemical usage and residues and IPM. Thus the Breeding Program has become a very strategic tool for business. In 1986 we released the first Burley MS-hybrid (male sterile) resistant to TMV and root knot nematodes (Meloidogyne incognita) in Brazil, and in 1993 we achieved another milestone by releasing our first Burley MS-hybrid with resistance to TMV, root knot nematodes and Granville wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum). Presently, the Souza Cruz Tobacco Breeding Centre (CMF) has more than 120 different hybrids covering the main tobacco types (VA Flue-Cured, Burley, Maryland, Galpao Comum, Oriental), all of them already officially registered at the SNPC - MAPA (Brazil's Agriculture Ministry). Besides the breeding work, the CMF is also in charge of producing all the tobacco seed needed to meet the requirements of Souza Cruz and integrated growers. Since 1998 we produce only "Certified Seeds", representing the high quality standard of our seed. At the end of 2001 we started the production of Tobacco Pelleted Seeds, and by 2004 we had achieved the production of 100% of the pelleted seed needed to fulfil our demands. Another important achievement was the complete screening for all commercial cultivars and tobacco types (Va, By, Md, Dark and so on) for nicotine to nornicotine conversion. This selection was made during the production of our Genetic and also our Foundation Seeds from our 2001 crop and continues today. As a result of this work, all the commercial hybrid seeds are currently under the target level of 3% and can be considered as "Low Converters - LC" cultivars.