Tobacco grower representatives in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province accused Pakistan’s federal government of violating the tobacco law by fixing the leaf price for the current crop below the previous year’s rate, reports Dawn.
Martial Law Order 487 requires the weighted average price for the tobacco crop of any year to be equal to or higher than the weighted average price paid to them for the crop of the immediately preceding year.
According to the grower representatives, the Federal Ministry of National Food Security and Research has set the minimum indicative price at PKR505 ($1.81) per kilogram for flue-cured Viriginia tobacco this year. Last year, the weighted average price was PKR709 per kilogram.
The growers said the move was a flagrant violation of the tobacco marketing law that should be immediately corrected.