Farming Communities
Most of our tobacco is sourced by our Group-owned vertically integrated Leaf Operations through approximately 91,000 directly contracted farmers.
The remaining tobacco is sourced from third-party suppliers that, in turn, contract with an estimated 134,000 farmers. The vast majority of tobacco farms in our supply chain are smallholder farms. We have programmes in place across our directly contracted farmer base to support and monitor performance across areas including human rights, environmental practices, and economic resilience. We expect the same from our third-party suppliers.
2030 targets and ambitions:
- 90% of farming households engaged in livelihood improvement programmes in priority geographies
- ZERO tolerance for child and forced labour in our supply chain1
How we’ll get there
We support the resilience of farming communities where we operate through livelihoods improvement.
Our approach to managing human rights is aligned to the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights.
Our due diligence programmes are underpinned by a number of policies, including those outlined in our Standards of Business Conduct (SoBC), which applies to all employees, and our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC), which governs the practices of our suppliers, including third-party tobacco suppliers.
Our Thrive system gathers data on topics including human rights and uses a framework based on the five ‘capitals’ outlined below to address challenges in farming communities. All participants complete annual evaluations, providing valuable insights that inform and help refine our approach.
We also participate in the industry’s Sustainable Tobacco Programme (STP) to promote responsible tobacco growing practices and to support the development of a methodology for assessing and addressing farmer living income.
Read more about our sustainability policies and procedures at: Sustainability Policies, Procedures and Standards
The five 'capitals' of our Thrive programme
Notes:
1. Due to the complex and systemic nature of child and forced labour, this represents an ongoing ambition rather than a time-bound target.
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