Companies agree to procure tobacco crop

The standoff between the tobacco growers and companies over the purchase of millions of kilograms of the non-recommended variety of tobacco in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ended on Saturday after the firms agreed to procure the crop on the average support price of Rs104.30.

The tobacco growers and companies formally concluded an agreement to this effect at a meeting held at the head office of the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB).

The meeting, chaired by the acting chairman and secretary of the PTB Nauman Bashir, was also attended by office-bearers of the representative bodies of growers and tobacco companies including Pakistan Tobacco Company, Lakson Tobacco, PMI, Walton Tobacco Company, Imperial Tobacco Company, Souvenir Tobacco Company, Sarhad Cigarette Industry, International Tobacco Company and other manufacturers.

It is pertinent to mention here that right at the peak of the current marketing season of tobacco, the tobacco companies refused to purchase the Rhodesia, locally known as Swati, variety of the tobacco grown in over 80 percent of the tobacco growing areas of Mardan, Swabi and Charsadda districts.

The tobacco companies decision left the growers in the lurch as they had harvested about 40 million kilograms of the variety, which was declared non-recommended variety by these companies.

The growers protested against the decision of the companies and stopped to bring to their depots over 25 million kilogram of the recommended variety of Speight G-28 tobacco.

They took out rallies in parts of Mardan and Swabi districts and forced the closure of some depots in Mandani and Shergarh areas.

It forced the Pakistan Tobacco Board to convene a meeting of the growers and companies to resolve the matter.

The growers at the Saturday meeting put forth a three-point agenda including the rate and purchase of the non-recommended variety, increase in the price of the Speight G-28 tobacco and compensation for the farmers whose crop was damaged by hailstorm.

However, only the issue of purchase of the non-recommended variety was discussed in the meeting where the growers expressed concern over the tobacco companies attitude. They complained that years ago the Swati seed was distributed by these same companies to the growers, but now suddenly they declared it non-recommended variety and refused to buy it.

They said the decision to fix the tobacco price was also violation of the 1968 Ordinance as no board of directors of the PTB existed for the last two years.

They said the government received over Rs48 billion as federal excise duty (FED) on tobacco, but it ignored the problems faced by the growers.

The companies and PTB officials, however, asserted that they had long ago informed the growers to avoid growing the non-recommended variety.