Alliance One International keeps one eye on the world's tobacco farmers and the other eye on the cigarette makers. The company is a leading global leaf-tobacco merchant, behind its slightly larger rival Universal Corporation. Alliance One purchases leaf tobacco from producers in more than 45 countries, which it packs, stores and ships to cigarette manufacturers worldwide. It also processes flue-cured, burley, and oriental tobaccos and sells them to large multinational cigarette and cigar manufacturers, including Philip Morris International (PMI) and Japan Tobacco, in some 90 countries. Alliance One was formed by the merger of tobacco processor DIMON and Standard Commercial.