Tobacco farmers in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swabi district are enduring three to four days in open-air queues to sell flue-cured Virginia tobacco to multinational companies, as a surplus crop creates a buyers’ bottleneck.
While those with purchase agreements secure better prices, many growers without contracts are left waiting with no guaranteed sale. Officials estimate this year’s production at over 100 million kilograms, 20 million kg above the announced combined demand declared by 80 purchasing companies. Farmers say selling to smaller national buyers often means delayed payments, sometimes for months or years. A parliamentary sub-committee will visit tobacco-growing districts to address the crisis, which follows crop losses from hail and storms.
Last fiscal year, the federal government collected Rs300 billion ($1.1 billion) in taxes from the sector, mostly from two multinational firms, Pakistan Tobacco Company and Philip Morris International, raising concerns about market imbalance and buyer accountability.
