Kenyan farmers who sell their leaf tobacco to British American Tobacco will not enjoy a per-kg increase in their incomes despite the company’s having announced a 17 percent jump in profit before tax to Sh7.1 billion, according to a Standard Digital News story.
BAT, whose latest Sustainability Summary Report emphasises ‘Value Shared’, said its current focus was on improving the quality of farmers’ yields.
“What we do is we meet our farmers before the planting season and give them inputs like fertilizer, seedlings and thorough training and technical expertise …,” managing director Keith Gretton was quoted as saying.
“We want now to check on new ways to improve the quality of their crop, which eventually will lead to higher pay.”
Gretton said also that BAT helped farmers with crop insurance and gave them maize seeds to plant after harvesting tobacco.
He said that BAT had paid farmers Sh1.24 billion last year, up from Sh700 million in 2011.
BAT is said to control 70 percent of the Kenyan cigarette market.