SWABI: The tobacco growers here in the district have been forced to wait for three to four days in long queues under the open sky, waiting for their turn, even in the night, to sell flue-cured Virginia (FCV) to multinational companies.

A visit to tobacco purchasing centres on Friday and Saturday made it clear that the growers were in hot waters and those who executed agreements with purchasing companies, especially multinational, were very lucky despite excessive wait because they were better off to sell their crop at a reasonable price.

However, those who failed to conclude agreements in time were running from pillar to post to sell their crop.

“This was the first time in my 50-year life of growing tobacco that we have stayed here for three nights, standing in line, but despite that our turn did not come. We are struggling and there was no body to listen to us as the situation was highly perturbed,” said Imran Khan of Maneri village.

Parliamentarians to meet farmers to find out solution to their problems

The growers were in a state of despair because tobacco is the only crop in the district that caters to their annual expenses; however, they faced numerous problems in selling the crop.

Manazir Khan, another grower, said the farmers were in trouble but no one was ready to help them or give due heed to their grievances, while the federal and provincial governments and Pakistan tobacco Board (PTB) were indifferent to the situation.

When contacted a prominent official of a multinational company said that a total 80 companies had announced their tobacco requirements for the current year through PTB, and the total demand was about 80 million kilogrammes.

However, he said: “The total crop production in the current year is more than 100 million kilogram, about 20 million kilogram more than the demand of the purchasing companies, reflecting the tobacco crop would turn surplus.

The officials of the multinational companies said that there were about 150 tobacco buyers in the field and 13 GLT (Green Leaf Threshing) companies and small cigarette manufacturers, however various companies have declared their demand, but they were not in filed which led to a pressure on the growers as how to sell the crop.

The dilemma of the growers is that if the tobacco businessmen or national companies purchased their crop they do not get payment in time and usually their money is stuck for months or even years.

Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the national assembly parliamentary panel has constituted a sub-committee that will visit tobacco growing districts to hear the growers’ difficulties in selling the produced crop and try to find a solution of their problems.

The representatives of the farmers had complained that the growers had already suffered huge losses because their crop was badly damaged by hailstones and thunderstorm, and they were left alone at mercy of the buyers, while the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) also collected billion rupees through imposition of GST and Federal Excise Duty (FED) on tobacco and cigarettes.

“In the last financial year, the federal government received Rs300 billion,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.

When contacted, another official of a multinational company recalled that the federal government had set nearly Rs600 billion revenue in 2024-25 budget from the tobacco sector, but it fell short of Rs300 billion, and approximately Rs280 billion were paid by PTC and Philips Morris International (PMI), while alone PTC contributed around Rs 250 billion. These two multinational continue to contribute but where are about 200 buyers, he questioned, adding, “We are in the field and buying tobacco and paying in time to farmers,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2025