The minimum guaranteed price of Virginia tobacco has set at Rs 117/kg for the present season with advise of farmers, tobacco exporting and manufacturing companies and members of Pakistan Tobacco Board with 13 % growth in comparison to the previous year.

The tobacco growers and cigarette companies have gained consensus in the price fixing at the meeting that was led at Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) headed by the Commissioner Minor Crop/P&D Food Security and Research, Ministry of Food and Security, Dr. Mohammad Aslam. PTB secretary, Noman Bashir, members of tobacco production and exporting companies, representatives of farmers, and also members of Cost of Production were all present at the meeting. All participants were in favour of the fixing of prices of Virginia tobacco as per cost of production, which could have a positive role for both tobacco growers, and tobacco companies.

They stood in favour of yielding quality sorts of tobacco as about 80% of Non-Recommended Varieties planting in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In the given region is produced approximately 98.9% of tobacco crop, which each year contributes to about Rs 60 billion to Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Following the past years worries of tobacco growers about setting of excessive prices for tobacco, forced PTB to gather all stakeholders on board before setting new prices, stated Noman Bashir. He also added that the coordination and interrelation between board, tobacco growers and cigarette companies was compulsory for improvement of tobacco crop in the region. “Our main priority is to assist tobacco growers and assure high prices to them for only cultivation of advised variety not Non-Recommended Varieties (NRV),” PTB secretary stated in an interview.

Various cigarette companies have demonstrated serious worries over yielding of NRV of Tobacco in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and required tobacco growers to cultivate only tobacco of the highest quality. While presenting the new prices for Virginia tobacco, Dr. Mohammad Aslam stated that the system couldn’t be advanced without purchase of qualitative tobacco.

About 80% of all tobacco crops are of the old variety, that is why tobacco farmers were called to workout the yielding quality hybrid seed in the country. He hopes that the quality and manufacture of tobacco will be improved greatly after presenting tobacco support prices in the region. “I think that it is not advantageous for both tobacco growers and companies, thus there is a need to cultivate only high hybrid crop,” he said. Recently, Dr. Mohammad Aslam allotted shields amongst the largest tobacco exporting companies, among which are Philip Morris, Khyber Tobacco Company, and Pakistan Tobacco Company.

By Sara Norton, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2011 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.