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SWABI: Tobacco growers are facing severe difficulties in selling their crop, with traders and small cigarette manufacturers offering rates more than 50 per cent below the official price, growers said on Saturday.
The purchase season for flue-cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco is in full swing across growing districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
For the current year, companies’ total requirement has been set at 61.627 million kg, of which 58.184m kg is FCV used in cigarette manufacturing.
However, the two multinationals — Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) and Philips Morris International Pakistan — are adhering to the official rate only for growers with whom they have existing contracts. Several contracts have lapsed after the companies reduced their procurement quotas for this year.
