Tactics range from the exploitation of farmers and use of child labour to threats and intimidation, and a “continent-spanning spy network”. All to pursue BAT’s own commercial goals.

Examples from across the region feature on an illustrative map, and below are links to further reading which provide a comprehensive understanding of the company’s activities in Africa.

Sabotage, Deceit and Duplicity: British American Tobacco Uncovered

Significant new reports and briefings can be found on the BAT Uncovered micro-site of TCRG’s partner organisation STOP at exposetobacco.org

These cover new allegations of bribery across Africa, and dirty tricks in South Africa.

Briefing papers on BAT’s alleged capture of state agencies, potential complicity in smuggling in South Africa and alleged connection to an attempted bribery conspiracy in Zimbabwe will be published on this site in due course.

Buying Influence and Advantage in Africa

Analysis of whistleblower documents by the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) at the University of Bath found a “large number of questionable payments” made by BAT over a five-year period.  This huge international corporation used these payments to influence policy and undermine competing tobacco companies, both international and local.

• Read the report summary: Buying Influence and Advantage in Africa: An Analysis of British American Tobacco’s Questionable Payments

BAT made payments impacting ten countries in East and Central Africa. They were made to politicians and civil servants, staff of competitor companies, journalists, farmers and others involved in positions of potential influence.  The use of these payments appeared to be systematized and supported by senior staff, including in BAT’s London office.

The full report details the payments and describes the serious consequences of this unethical business activity. It also suggests that governments globally should more closely examine BAT’s behaviour.

• Read the full report: “Unlawful Bribes?”: A documentary analysis showing British American Tobacco’s use of payments to secure policy and competitive advantage in Africa¹

The leaked source documents are publicly available in the UCSF Industry Documents Library Africa Collection (University of California, San Francisco).

Dirty Tricks in South Africa

In the report on British American Tobacco in South Africa, TCRG researchers explain how BAT has fought to maintain its dominance of this key market over decades, in the face of increased competition and growing illicit trade. The report describes how the company has used “any means necessary” to hold its position, including paying another company to run a “massive secret surveillance and informant network in Southern Africa on behalf of BAT”.

The report details BAT’s use of third party service providers, allegedly overseen and run by senior operatives at BAT’s London headquarters.  It also explains how BAT is “yet to face meaningful consequences for its actions either in the region or at home in the U.K.” after the U.K. Serious Fraud Office (SFO) dropped its five-year investigation in January 2021.

BAT has repeatedly denied accusations of corporate espionage, corruption and law-breaking,² but new analysis of leaked documents raises serious questions about BAT’s activities in South Africa, particularly in relation to tobacco smuggling and tax evasion.

The research by the TCRG was carried out in collaboration with BBC’s Panorama, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Organized Crime and Reporting Project.

• Read the report: British American Tobacco in South Africa: Any Means Necessary

See also:

The BBC’s Panorama documentary programme, broadcast on 13 September 2021, which “unveils new revelations about the corrupt practices deployed by one of Britain’s biggest companies.”³

• Watch ‘Dirty Secrets of the Cigarette Business’ (BBC iPlayer, UK only, registration required)
• Watch on BBC World Saturday 18 September 2021 (Africa link, switch to other regions at the bottom of the page, note times are GMT)

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Read: Smoke Screen: BAT’s agents brokered bribe proposal⁴
• Listen: Smoke Screen: Love, bribes, lies and spies in the tobacco industry

Victoria Hollingsworth tells the true story of corrupt practices behind the scenes at British American Tobacco. Hear from the very people caught up in this world as the Bureau sinks deep into the dirty underbelly of the tobacco industry in South Africa.

BAT in Africa: A History of Double Standards

TobaccoTactics details the history of BAT’s double standards, exposing a difference between its stated goals and principles, and its activities in low and middle-income African countries.  It includes links to earlier allegations against BAT, featured in a 2015 Panorama programme and media coverage at the time.

• See British American Tobacco in Africa: A History Double Standards

This page brings the story up to date…

• See British American Tobacco in Africa: Continuing Allegations of Misbehaviour

References

The post The BAT Files: How British American Tobacco Bought Influence in Africa appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Here we look at the some of the research published since then which have added to our understanding of the company.

For more details on the pages published by Tobacco Tactics on British American Tobacco in Africa visit The BAT Files.

Introduction

In 2015, the BBC’s Panorama programme used documents from an industry whistleblower to highlight allegations of alleged bribery by British American Tobacco.

According to the evidence supplied by former BAT employee Paul Hopkins, the firm allegedly arranged bribes totalling US$26,000 for officials in Rwanda, Burundi and Comoros Islands. BAT insisted it conducted its business with honesty, integrity and transparency.

Even though BAT and those featured in the program issued denials about the allegations, in 2015 the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) began investigating, leading to a formal criminal investigation into BAT and associated persons in 2017.

In January 2021 the SFO concluded: “Following extensive investigation and a comprehensive review of the available evidence, the SFO has concluded its investigation into British American Tobacco, its subsidiaries and associated persons. The evidence in this case did not meet the evidential test for prosecution as defined in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.”

The SFO added that it would “continue to offer assistance to the ongoing investigations of other law enforcement partners. We thank our international law enforcement partners, and in particular the Kenyan Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), for their assistance in the SFO’s investigation.”⁵

Document analysis

In 2021, new research was published adding to the understanding of BAT’s operations in Africa. Panorama followed up on its 2015 programme, which mainly focussed on East and Central Africa, with a new investigation into operations in Southern Africa. ⁶ Alongside this STOP published its own reports.

The Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath also did a deeper analysis of the Hopkins documents and a second set of documents disclosed from a court case in Uganda involving former BAT employee Solomon Muyita. Both Hopkins and Muyita had invoked BAT’s whistleblower policy.^{78 9}

BAT payments

This analysis looked at 236 payments totalling US$601,502 made between July 2008 and May 2013 to dozens of people including politicians, civil servants, journalists, farmers and staff at competitor companies.

BAT made payments impacting 10 countries Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Payments took multiple forms including hand-delivered cash, bank wire transfers, spending money, cars, campaign donations, per diems, and plane tickets.

According to the research, the payments were used for two broad purposes. To obtain information and influence policy and to gather information and undermine competitors. The authors conclude:

“The available evidence suggests BAT’s use of payments in Africa was extensive, systematised, and supported at a high level within parts of the company. Payments were used to buy political and competitive advantage.”¹⁰

According to the analysis of the documents sets, the information suggests payments were a routine part of BAT’s business practices in Africa, with senior staff aware of the practice. Third party companies, referred to as “service providers”, were contracted to undertake consultancy services for BAT to make the payments.

BAT’s official policy on corruption as stated on its website is: “Corruption causes distortion in markets and harms economic, social and political development, particularly in developing countries. Our Standards of Business Conduct make clear that it is wholly unacceptable for our companies and employees to be involved or implicated in any way in corrupt practice.”¹¹

Influencing policy

As the original research in 2015 revealed, BAT had been aiming to influence policy changes in several countries. The analysis of these two document sets confirmed and expanded this area of concern.

Attempts were made to frustrate the passing of legislation based on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Burundi, Comoros, Rwanda and Uganda. Civil servants and politicians in particular were targeted through the payments. As a result tobacco control legislation in three of the countries is still not compliant with the FCTC while Uganda had a bitter four-year battle to pass its Tobacco Control Act.

The payments were also used to undermine efforts to control tobacco smuggling. In Kenya, BAT campaigned to have its own system in place for tracking tobacco products rather than an independent one as mandated by the Illicit Trade Protocol.¹⁰

Sabotaging competitors

BAT has a very strong market position in Africa and looks to maintain and expand that position. As such payments appear linked to gaining information on competitors – these include Mastermind Tobacco Kenya, Continental Tobacco Uganda and Leaf Tobacco & Commodities Uganda. It also targeted international rival Japan Tobacco International (JTI) which was operating in Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic Congo.

Tactics used included funding a fake trade union to foment labour unrest, pay for sources inside companies and take advantage of complaints to regulators.

Other examples of payments

The evidence that BAT used payments to influence policy and damage competitors between over a number of years is not the first time that a tobacco company has been accused of such activity.

Evidence from Australia suggests that the tobacco industry may have used bribery in the 1970s to help bring down a minority Tasmanian government attempting to impose a tobacco tax, although the police inquiry cleared the politician in question.¹² A 2000 court case brought by the European Union and its member states accused tobacco companies of bribing public officials as part of its global scheme to smuggle cigarettes.¹³¹⁴ Maithripala Sirisena who later became the President of Sri Lanka in 2015, alleged that, when trying to introduce large pictorial health warnings as Health Minister, BAT tried to bribe him, although this was “categorically denied” by the company.¹⁵

The findings also align with widespread evidence from South Africa of payments to monitor and undermine competitors.

Tobacco smuggling in Mali

While the two document sets from the whistleblowers provided evidence of wide-ranging payments across many countries, another investigation in 2021 uncovered further concerns.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) had access to internal BAT documents as well as trade data and interviews with participants to document activities in the country.¹⁶. It found that BAT took advantage of the precarious military situation and over-supplied the country with cigarettes. In doing so this keeps BAT brands in circulation; but also generates profits for jihadists and militias.

“This is their playground,” Hana Ross, a University of Cape Town economist who researches tobacco, said of the industry. “They know they can get away with stuff. It’s much easier to bribe. It’s much easier to cheat the system,’’ she said. “Governments here are generally weak. This is where they do things that they don’t dare to do in Europe anymore.”¹⁶

A spokesperson for BAT said: “At BAT, we have established anti-illicit trade teams operating at global and local levels. We also have robust policies and procedures in place to fight this issue and fully support regulators, governments and international organizations in seeking to eliminate all forms of illicit trade.”

Further reading

BAT Uncovered

British American Tobacco in South Africa: Any Means Necessary

Buying Influence and Advantage in Africa: An Analysis of British American Tobacco’s Questionable Payments

Tobacco Tactics Resources

The BAT Files

British American Tobacco: Dirty Deeds in Africa

References

The post British American Tobacco in Africa: Continuing Allegations of Misbehaviour appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Malawi is one of Africa’s largest exporters of tobacco leaf. In July 2020, the population of Malawi was estimated to be approximately 21.2 million.¹⁷ The World Bank classifies Malawi as a low-income country.¹⁸

Tobacco Use in Malawi

The STEPS Survey, 2017 reported a current tobacco use prevalence of 22% male (18-69 years) and 3% female (18-69 years). The Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 2009 (ages 13-15) found that 16.7% of boys and 11.4% of girls were current tobacco users.¹⁹

Tobacco in Malawi

Malawi is one of Africa’s largest tobacco leaf producers and in 2015, produced 22.6% of all of Africa’s output of tobacco leaf.²⁰ In 2018, 95,356 tonnes of tobacco were harvested in Malawi.²¹ It is one of the world’s largest producers of burley tobacco. In 2015, tobacco farming took up more than 5% of all of Malawi’s farming land – the highest percentage anywhere in the world, at that time. In the same year, it also had the fourth highest deforestation rate in the world; according to the government, tobacco is a major driver of forest loss in the country.²²

Government ministers have called tobacco a “strategic crop” for Malawi and defended the country’s continuing investment in its production.²³ However, earnings from tobacco leaf export have declined sharply over recent years.²⁴

Three of the big four transnational tobacco companies, Philip Morris International (PMI), Imperial Brands and British American Tobacco (BAT) all purchase tobacco leaf from the two main leaf distributors in the country: Universal Leaf (in Malawi, known as Limbe Leaf) and Alliance One.²⁵ Japan Tobacco International (JTI) buys its own leaf from the country. The Chinese National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC), the largest tobacco company in the world, also buys small amounts of tobacco from leaf purchasing companies Limbe Leaf and Alliance One.²⁶

The cigarette market in Malawi in 2018 was estimated to be worth US$101.9 million and 2,408.9 million sticks by Euromonitor International.²⁷

• For more information, please see the pages Tobacco Farming and Tobacco and the Environment.

Roadmap to Tobacco Control

Malawi ratified the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in August 2023.²⁸ However, as of 2021, it lacked a tobacco control programme and had implemented almost no tobacco control measures.¹⁹

In 2018, the Malawian Parliament passed the Tobacco Industry Bill to update the Tobacco Act (1970)²⁹ and prevent the exploitation of farmers by tobacco companies.³⁰ This is not, however, a tobacco control act: as researchers from the Centre for Agricultural Research & Development in Lilongwe commented in Tobacco Atlas, “although the Act was touted as protecting the growers, many farmers argue that the Act actually harms the farmers more than was the case before the new Act”.³¹ Instead, the Act and its update regulate tobacco growing and wholesale buying, selling and export of tobacco leaf.³² JTI said it had worked alongside government on the Bill’s formulation in 2018 with “stakeholders in the tobacco industry” and expressed its support for the Bill, saying it hoped it would “not be delayed”.³³

For more details, please see the following websites:

• Legislation by Country/Jurisdiction – Malawi, Tobacco Control Laws, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
• Malawi, WHO FCTC Implementation Database, WHO FCTC Secretariat
• Country profile – Malawi, World Health Organization, WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic 2021

Tobacco Industry Interference in Malawi

Leaf sourcing companies, including Alliance One, regularly publicise their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, including the construction of schools and donations to orphanages as a strategy to address child labour or to disaster relief funds, in press coverage.^3435363738 In one article, Alliance One was commended for building a school “in Malawi’s President Chakwera’s home area”. The company reportedly had spent MK153 million (approximately US$201,750) on primary school construction projects in the country.³⁵ Tobacco industry CSR, and its promotion, is called “an inherent contradiction” by the WHO FCTC, which recommends against banning all such activities by tobacco companies.³⁹

The Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco-Growing Foundation (ECLT), an organisation funded and governed by tobacco companies, is active in Malawi. The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, a front group wholly funded by PMI, also operates in the country. It has several grantees in the country, including the Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) and the Malawi Agricultural Policy Advancement and Transformation Agenda (MwAPATA) Institute.

• You can read more about how the tobacco industry uses CSR as part of its corporate strategy on our CSR Strategy, CSR: Child Labour and Greenwashing.

Arguments about the importance of tobacco growing to Malawi’s economy are used by Malawian politicians to justify continued interaction and cooperation with the tobacco industry. In his September 2020 State of the Nation address, President Chakwera said:⁴⁰

“while tobacco remains Malawi’s primary export and a key form of income for many Malawians, the crop is unlikely to provide a sustainable source of income in the longer-term given a decline in global demand. By working with tobacco companies, we can help blend other crop types into the farmers’ mix over time. Diversification efforts such as this can contribute significantly to household food security while supporting the establishment of a more resilient agricultural system. This is especially important given the resources, expertise, and strong domestic and international networks which tobacco companies can offer.”

The government of Malawi has engaged with the tobacco industry on tobacco pricing⁴¹ and foreign investment.⁴²

In 2024, an investigation by media outlet ZAM and the Malawian Platform for Investigative Journalism reported that Alliance One paid almost no corporate income tax in Malawi in 2020 and 2021.⁴³ Alliance One is Malawi’s second largest tobacco leaf merchant, with a market share of around 40%. It exported US$319 million in raw tobacco between 2020 and 2022, yet it paid no corporate income tax at all in 2020, and just US$41,000 in 2021.⁴³ Corporate income tax in Malawi is supposed to be 30% of a company’s profit.⁴⁴ During the same period, Alliance One sent payments abroad of around US$1.4 million and US$2.8 million.⁴³

Alliance One, which is a subsidiary of the US agricultural company Pyxus International, supplies both BAT and Imperial Brands.⁴³⁴⁵

• For more information on Alliance One, see the Tobacco Supply Chain Database.

Attempts to influence international organisations using Malawi’s government

Another way that the tobacco industry gains access to policymakers, and therefore legislation, is through positioning itself as a ‘partner’ in development. Prior to the passage of the WHO FCTC in 2003, the tobacco industry influenced the government of Malawi to promote the arguments that tobacco control would result in job losses and foreign earnings that temporarily succeeded in distracting from the health benefits of tobacco control policies but was ultimately unsuccessful in weakening the WHO FCTC. This is an example of how tobacco companies use developing countries’ economic dependence on tobacco to lobby against global tobacco control.⁴⁶

Similarly, alongside the 2014 UN General Assembly (UNGA), which the industry is prevented from attending, the tobacco industry met with the Malawian President to urge him to represent its interests on a global stage. The then-Chairman and CEO of Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, George Freeman, met with the then-President Mutharika to “brief him on their operations in Malawi”. Freeman urged the President to “support the Integrated Production System (IPS)” and requested the government “lobby with the U.S. government” to request that tobacco be included in the renewed African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) after 2015.⁴⁷ IPS is an industry-developed structure that adds supervision by technicians to the normal contract farming arrangement.⁴⁸ The President responded that “Government will do everything possible to ensure a cordial relationship with companies in the tobacco industry”.⁴⁷

Extensive research published in 2021 by the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, a partner in STOP, and in conjunction with BBC’s Panorama, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project uncovered multiple instances of British American Tobacco seeking to frustrate tobacco control measures in Africa.

• For more details visit The BAT Files.

Relevant Links

• Alliance One International website
• Limbe Leaf Tobacco Company (Universal) website
• JTI Malawi website
• BAT Malawi website

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Africa’s Tobacco Epidemic
• Centre for Agricultural Transformation
• Tobacco Farming
• British American Tobacco
• Japan Tobacco International
• A list of TobaccoTactics pages on Africa

References

The post Malawi Country Profile appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Background

An FSFW operations statement released in May 2020 summarised CAT’s delivered and planned activities.⁵² In the section of the statement concerning Agriculture and Livelihoods, FSFW stated that, in 2020, it aimed to:⁵²

“Launch Center for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) at Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) campus. Promote and accelerate the use of digital technologies and advanced data analytics to accelerate agricultural transformation in Malawi.”

In a 2019 job advertisment for an Executive Director, CAT stated that by the end of 2023 the systems and infrastructure would be in place to grow activities domestically within Malawi and regionally.⁵³

• For more information on FSFW, see our pages on the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World and its Centres of Excellence

Relationship with the tobacco industry

CAT Funded by Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (2018)

In July 2018, the FSFW launched a request for proposals up to the grant amount of US$10 million for CAT in Malawi, under the area of agriculture and livelihoods with a contract renewable after 5 years.⁵⁴⁵⁵ CAT received a 5-year grant from FSFW’s Agricultural Transformation Initiative (ATI) . The ATI webpage states that its mission is to support the diversification of tobacco-dependent economies.⁴⁹ The ATI states that, as Malawi is a country reliant on tobacco production, it needs economic diversification to reduce poverty and food insecurity. CAT is intended to be a “flagship” project for the ATI, with the intention of expanding the programme to other tobacco-dependent countries.⁵⁴ CAT works with a consortium of four partner organisations: the charitable arm of Land O’Lakes International Development (Minnesota, USA) which is a food and agriculture business; the University of Minnesota (Minnesota, USA); Stellenbosch University (Stellenbosch, South Africa); and the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Thyolo, Malawi).⁵¹ These partners were chosen as leading agricultural and development institutions.⁵⁶ As of May 2020, the FSFW lists Land O’Lakes International Development and the University of Minnesota on their awarded grants archive. However, it does not mention Stellenbosch University, a 2018 grantee, or the Malawi University of Science and Technology as receiving grants for the CAT project.⁵⁷⁵⁰

Belgian architects Org Architecten have been commissioned by the Foundation to design the centre in Lilongwe.  FSFW has promised contributions of  US$133,645.^{58 50} The project is being delivered in partnership with the Malawi National Planning Commission, First Hectare Capital and the Mwapata Institute.⁵⁸

Malawi Agricultural Policy Advancement and Transformation Agenda  (Mwapata) Institute describes itself as an independent agricultural policy think tank based in Lilongwe .⁵⁹ It was created by Michigan State University as part of a $7.8m grant from the Foundation. MSU staff are on the Institute’s board.⁶⁰⁶¹

People

As of May 2020 CAT was yet to appoint a director, three months after an initial recruitment advertisment. on 15 May 2020, Land O’Lakes advertised again for a Center Director:

“responsible for coordinating the physical space, grounds, and operationalization of the Centre for Agricultural Transformation. This includes facilitating partnership activities that leverage the CAT Centre; building a network of agricultural researchers and practitioners in Malawi; providing strategic oversight to demonstration plot infrastructure design and management; designing the facility layout and supplying with furniture and equipment; coordinate and market activities in and around the Centre including the Grand Opening scheduled for early 2021; and working closely with CAT partners to make the vision for the physical Centre a reality.

To deliver on the duties and responsibilities outlined below, the Centre Director will work closely with other CAT team members based in Lilongwe and will be supported by an Agronomy Services Manager administratively on coordinating field-based activities on CAT land.”⁶²

Dr. Candida Nakhumwa is FSFW’s Country Director for Malawi responsible for activities in that country.⁶³

Outputs

FSFW outlines the core activities of CAT as:

• awarding grants to agricultural entrepreneurs, businesses and research institutions working in the area of science and technology
• acting as a central hub for science, technology and innovation
• delivering technical and business assistance to grant awardees.⁴⁹

In addition to CAT’s main research and commercialisation outputs, it has stated that it will “contribute to the public good through education, extension, applied research, policy engagement and study tours”.⁵⁴

At FSFW’s Agricultural Transformation summit in November 2019 there was a discussion on the use of data to help transform agricultural markets which included CAT’s ground sensor pilot programme.⁶⁴

CAT has recently identified “groundnuts as their preliminary value chain focus”. It has stated it will look to ”encourage labour-saving interventions” aimed at smallholder farmers.⁶⁵

Events

In 2019, the Foundation said the Centre had completed an AgTech Challenge where school children came up with ideas for labour-saving devices for groundnut production.⁶⁶

TT resources

• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World
• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World Grantees
• Foundation for a Smoke-Free World Centres of Excellence

References

The post Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) appeared first on TobaccoTactics.

Article 17 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) encourages parties to promote sustainable alternatives to tobacco farming.⁶⁷ There is a consensus that diversification programmes, designed for the local context, can improve farmers’ livelihoods.

Despite a global trend of decreasing tobacco consumption from 2000 to 2020,⁶⁸ and an overall worldwide decline in tobacco leaf production during the same time period,⁶⁹ tobacco remains a popular cash-crop choice for many farmers, especially in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) where the vast majority of tobacco farming takes place.⁷⁰⁷¹  The global fall in tobacco leaf production has been accompanied by a production shift from Europe and other high income countries, towards lower income countries like Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia⁶⁹⁷²⁷³

The tobacco industry portrays tobacco farming as economically advantageous for governments and especially for farmers. Other claims include that it helps improve resilience, empowers low-income populations and strengthens communities, while the industry also tends to minimise the risks of tobacco growing for health and the environment.⁷⁴⁷⁵⁷⁶

In reality, tobacco farming often leads to economic hardships, labour exploitation, environmental degradation, and health problems for farmers. Farmers often have less influence within the political process than non-tobacco growers in the same area.⁷⁷

Image 1: Tobacco leaf drying (Source: Shutterstock)

The myth of economic prosperity

According to the tobacco industry, tobacco cultivation promises high rates of return for investing in tobacco crops and long-term benefits to smallholder farmers.⁷⁴⁷⁵⁷⁶

However, tobacco growing is often less profitable for farmers than other crops, and tobacco-growing families are poorer than comparable non-tobacco-growing households.⁷²⁷⁸ In Lebanon, research has shown that small scale production is so unprofitable that it would not be possible without government subsidy.⁷⁹

Evidence shows that the labour costs of growing tobacco are enormous, as much as double the labour needed to produce other similar crops. For example, tobacco is amongst the most labour-intensive crops in Kenya, requiring over 1,000 hours of unpaid labour to produce one acre of tobacco.⁸⁰ The number of hours needed for tobacco growing stops families spending time attaining educational qualifications or developing skills that might lead to more lucrative livelihoods.

Tobacco growing also creates specific vulnerabilities for farmers:  they depend on tobacco companies for inputs and technologies, and are exposed to fluctuations in the price of tobacco leaf.⁸¹

In its reporting, the tobacco industry minimises the low rates of return on investment for tobacco growing and downplays the financial risks for the farmers. For example, BAT reported that in Kenya, tobacco farmers can either grow food for their families’ needs or have sufficient profits to purchase food.⁷⁴ A 2020 study of tobacco farming in Kenya instead shows that most tobacco farmers are stuck in unprofitable ‘contract farming’ systems and 10-15% are food insecure.⁸⁰

Contract farming

Most tobacco farmers work under a contract system with leaf buying-companies or directly with transnational tobacco companies like BAT.⁸⁰⁸²

Under these systems, farmers receive inputs like plants, fertiliser and machinery at the start of the season from leaf-buying companies, without having to pay for these upfront. In return, they commit to selling their tobacco to the leaf merchant. However, leaf prices are dictated by the buying companies, who often set these very low or reduce them during the contract period. Leaf buyers often use tobacco grading, or the classification of leaf quality, to reduce the offer price, often in disagreement with farmers.⁸⁰⁸³⁸⁴ Leaf buying companies can also deduct unfairly high costs from the payment they offer farmers, to pay back the inputs they initially provided.⁸⁰

Contract farming rarely produces the high returns promised by tobacco and leaf-buying companies. Instead, contract farmers remain stuck in ‘bonded labour’: debt cycles where they never earn enough to repay their debts.^80828485 Contracted farmers often have to rely on the unpaid labour of family members and children in fields in order to meet contract requirements.⁸²

Farmers often understand that this contract system for tobacco farming is risky but agree to this work because they lack the credit to pursue other economic opportunities. Contract tobacco growing guarantees them the income, however low, that they need in order to pay for basic necessities like healthcare and education.⁷²

The COVID-19 pandemic and profitability

The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the struggle of farmers to find fair prices for their tobacco leaf. In Malawi, farmers reported receiving less than half of the expected rate for their tobacco leaf at auction.⁸⁶ Fears that crowded auction floors and direct contact between growers and buyers would promote transmission of the virus prompted Zimbabwean authorities to delay the opening of the tobacco market selling season.⁸⁷⁸⁸ Once the markets did open, new regulations stated that individual farmers would not be allowed onto auction floors where they could observe buyers; tobacco association representatives would instead sell leaf on behalf of farmers.⁸⁸

• For more information on the tobacco industry and COVID-19, see our page on COVID-19

The climate crisis and profitability

The climate crisis in tobacco-growing regions makes profits from tobacco growing more unreliable.

In Zimbabwe, shorter and more erratic rainy seasons decrease the quality and quantity of tobacco crops, especially for smallholder farmers who can’t afford irrigation systems and rely on rainfall instead.⁸⁹

In the tobacco-growing region of Temanggung, Indonesia, the phenomenon of late tobacco harvesting seasons has become increasingly common. In this region, farmers have been losing income, as companies purchase tobacco leaf from other regions where harvesting happens earlier in the year.⁹⁰

Farmers in tobacco growing regions that are heavily impacted by the climate crisis have been developing adaptation and mitigation strategies to maintain the profitability of their tobacco crops, such as irrigation systems and later harvesting. However, research indicates that “even with these adaptations tobacco and maize are riskier crops to grow than traditional grains.”⁸⁹⁹¹ soil degradation,⁹²⁹³ biodiversity loss,⁹⁴ the use of pesticides,⁹⁵⁹⁶ and adverse effects on farmers’ health.⁹⁷ Despite this, tobacco companies use ESG rankings and accreditations to clean up their image.⁹⁸

• For more information, see the page Tobacco and the Environment

Image 2: A farmer carrying a bundle of tobacco leaf (Source: Shutterstock)

Vulnerable communities

Together with the narrative of economic prosperity comes the myth that impoverished and vulnerable communities are empowered. Philip Morris International (PMI) published a report in April 2020, focusing on the empowerment of women for change in its supply chain. In this report, PMI argued that it works to “empower women to play an active role in improving the household economic condition but also in enhancing the overall wellbeing of their children and maintaining a safe work environment” on tobacco farms.⁹⁹ However, a study in Zimbabwe concluded that women in households growing cash crops, in particular tobacco, were more likely to be disempowered.¹⁰⁰ A study conducted in China, Tanzania and Kenya concluded that few women in tobacco growing households in Tanzania and Kenya had any financial decision-making power. Women also face particular harmful effects to their health while working on tobacco farms, including the risk of miscarriage while pregnant.¹⁰¹

All four transnational tobacco corporations present a strong and compelling narrative around tobacco farming: that it will improve livelihoods, strengthen communities, provide good working conditions and deliver financially stable futures for farmers.^102103104105 For example, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) states on its website that “Growers know they will receive meaningful support that not only leads to improved yields and profits, but that also help improve the social conditions and quality of life in their communities.”¹⁰⁶

However, a WHO report on tobacco and the environment published in 2017 found that the long-term consequences include “increased food insecurity, frequent sustained farmers’ debt, illness and poverty among farmworkers, and widespread environmental damage”.⁸³ Tobacco farmers end up having to dedicate intensive labour hours to produce tobacco leaf, in inadequate working conditions, with low wages and unfair conditions that include child labour (see below).

• For more information on the tobacco industry narratives around farming see International Tobacco Growers Association

Health risks to farmers

Tobacco leaf production has many health risks, which are frequently underreported by the tobacco industry.

According to the World Health Organization, “each day, a tobacco worker who plants, cultivates and harvests tobacco may absorb as much nicotine as found in 50 cigarettes”.⁷¹ Nicotine poisoning, also known as green tobacco sickness, occurs as a result of exposure to wet tobacco leaves during tobacco cultivation. Children are more likely to develop green tobacco sickness, not only because they have a relatively smaller body size, but also because they have not yet built up the nicotine tolerance which is needed protect them from these side effects.⁷⁴ Avoiding nicotine poisoning when working with tobacco plants is difficult, even when wearing protective equipment. BAT reported several cases of green tobacco sickness in its Brazilian farming operations, despite workers having worn protective equipment.⁷⁴

Another risk resulting from tobacco farming is the exposure to agrochemicals, including pesticides. Researchers found that in Kenya, 26% of tobacco workers showed symptoms of pesticide poisoning;¹⁰⁷ in Malaysia, this number was higher than a third.¹⁰⁸ In Bangladesh, where weed killer is frequently used in tobacco fields, significant levels of chemicals were also detected in local water sources, killing fish and soil organisms needed to maintain soil health.¹⁰⁹

The risk of exposure to agrochemicals is generally lower for tobacco farmers in high-income countries than in LMICs, where the regulation of chemicals tends to be weaker.⁹² Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) plus eleven other persistent organic pollutants used in agrochemicals are banned in high income countries, but not in some LMICs.⁹²¹¹⁰ Pesticides are often sold to tobacco farmers in LMICs without proper packaging or instructions.⁹²¹¹⁰ The health effects that derive from chronic exposure range from birth defects and tumours to blood disorders, neurological diseases and depression.⁹²¹¹⁰ Even tobacco workers who do not directly mix or spray chemicals, like harvesters, can be exposed to significant levels of toxins and are susceptible to pesticide poisoning.⁸³

Child Labour

Child labour is a prevalent and long standing issue in the tobacco farming sector.¹¹¹

Children involved in the growing stages of tobacco farming take part in labour-intensive activities,¹¹² which poses risks to their health,¹¹³¹¹⁴ and limits their access to education.¹¹⁵¹¹⁶

Children working in tobacco farms are also more vulnerable to the health risks than adults, including the impacts of absorbing nicotine.¹¹⁷

Many of the children working in tobacco fields in Kenya report handling fertilisers and chemicals, endangering their health.⁸⁰¹¹⁷

Tobacco farming and the FCTC

The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is an international treaty that aims to reduce the demand and supply of tobacco.

It recognises that as countries and governments adopt measures to reduce the demand of tobacco products, they must also address the consequences of this demand reduction on tobacco farmers who rely on these crops for their livelihoods.¹¹⁸

Specifically, article 17 recognises the need to:

“promote economically viable alternatives to tobacco production as a way to prevent possible adverse social and economic impacts on populations whose livelihoods depend on tobacco production.”⁶⁷

The tobacco industry argues that tobacco control policies threaten the economic benefits  that it claims tobacco growing brings to local farmers.⁶⁷However, other crops can provide much more sustainable alternatives. In addition, demand reduction happens slowly, allowing farmers to diversify their crops gradually, reducing the economic impact.⁶⁷

Parties to the WHO FCTC also have an obligation to:

“have due regard to the protection of the environment and the health of persons in relation to the environment in respect of tobacco cultivation and manufacture within their respective territories.” ¹¹⁸

• For more information see the page on Tobacco and the Environment

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental, Social and Governance

In response to increasing scrutiny over environmental degradation and the use of child labour in the tobacco supply chain, transnational tobacco companies have invested in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives which they describe to their shareholders in their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reports.⁹⁸

• For more information, see the pages on CSR: Child Labour, and the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco-Growing (ECLT) foundation

The tobacco industry has also been involved in CSR programmes supporting farming diversification in tobacco growing regions, despite the FCTC specifically recommending that “policies promoting economically sustainable alternative livelihoods should be protected from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry”.⁶⁷¹¹⁹

• See Greenwashing in Malawi and the Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT)

PMI’s ‘Agricultural Labour Practices’ (ALP) Programme

On 10 December 2020, PMI published an article seeking to celebrate the International Day of Human Rights by promoting its achievements around its Agricultural Labour Practices (ALP) program. This programme was created by PMI in 2011, seemingly aiming to end child labour and protect workers’ rights and livelihoods.¹²⁰

According PMI’s ALP 2020 report, the key principles of the programme include “no child labor, no forced labor or human trafficking, fair treatment, safe working environment, fair income and work hours, freedom of association, and terms of employment”.¹²¹ However, the timeline below (Image 3) from the same report, shows how, despite the programme having run for 9 years, PMI continues to use child labour in its supply chain. The company has given itself a further 5 years to end the practice.¹²¹

Image 3: Timeline of the ‘Agricultural Labor Practices Program’ (Source: Philip Morris International, ALP program 2020 report)¹²¹

• For more information on PMI’s ALP programme, and how tobacco companies fail to properly measure or manage the effectiveness of this type of initiative, see CSR: Child Labour

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Greenwashing
• Tobacco and the Environment
• CSR: Child Labour
• Tobacco Supply Chain Database: addressing the supply side of the tobacco epidemic

Relevant Links

• TCRG blog Supplying the deadly tobacco industry
• WHO World No Tobacco Day 2023: Grow food, not tobacco includes a myth buster on Tobacco growing
• WHO report: “Tobacco and the environment”
• Tobacco Atlas

TCRG Research

For a comprehensive list of all TCRG publications, including TCRG research that evaluates the impact of public health policy, go to the Bath TCRG’s list of publications.

References

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