With unsold stock piling up, Pakistan’s tobacco growers demand urgent government action against multinationals cutting quotas.
Tobacco farmers have urged the government to direct multinational companies (MNCs) to increase their purchase quotas, warning that thousands of livelihoods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remain at risk due to unsold stock.
Speaking before the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Food Security, representatives of growers said large quantities of tobacco remain piled up in warehouses after multinational companies cut their procurement by one-third in the past two years. Farmers claim this reduction has left them struggling, especially after crop losses from rains and hailstorms.
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Committee members, including a former Speaker of the National Assembly and a senior lawmaker from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, backed the growers’ demand and called on the Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) to ensure purchases at official rates and within approved quotas.
The committee directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to hold urgent talks with PTB, Pakistan Tobacco Company, Philip Morris International, and growers to resolve the crisis and report back within a week.
