SWABI: The Ittehad Kashthkaran Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (IKKP) leaders claimed here on Tuesday that a multinational tobacco purchasing company had been directed by Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) to buy 1.5 million kilograms flue-cured Virginia (FCV) from the growers in Swabi district.

Daud Jan Khan, central vice-chairman, and Muhammad Iqbal Shewa, vice-chairman, of IKKP in a briefing to media persons said that they had confirmed it and now the growers could sell their crop at minimum price of Rs743 per kg.

An official of a multinational national company said on condition of anonymity that the quota which was given to Philips Morris International (PMI) Pakistan was actually agreed with the Swabi growers under the agreements executed with them as it was purchased by the PMI in Shergar, Mardan district, but the PTB officials bound them to buy the 1.5 million kg tobacco in Swabi.

“The companies have slashed their total requirements of 2.5 million kg for the current year and the total demand of all varieties of the crop for the current year is 74.810 million kg,” he said.

An official of the PMI’s company said that the purchase of the tobacco has restarted. A leaf manager of the PMI said that they had started purchasing tobacco from those farmers whose quota had not yet completed.

The Swabi district produces 60 percent of total tobacco crop in the country, and this is the only cash crop which caters to the entire year’s expenditure of the local farmers and directly and indirectly everyone, including prominent politicians, have been involved in this business.

Mr Daud and Mr Iqbal Shewa said that this year, tobacco farmers faced many difficulties.

The government’s indifference is quite visible despite the fact that the federal government received Rs300 billion through different taxes on tobacco products last year.

Daud said: “At the same time, the PTB has not played its due role. The companies have also left no stone unturned to cause as much financial damage to tobacco growers as they could.

Also, it cannot be denied that tobacco production was also high in the current year.”

They said that even now, a large quantity has remained unpurchased with the growers, so the PTB should also oblige other companies to buy the crop from the farmers on time and give up the policy of declaring the remaining tobacco surplus to be purchased from the farmers at low price.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2025