SWABI: The tobacco growers have announced a protest drive against both the national and multinational companies for fixing `lower` prices of their crop.

As Pakistan Tobacco Company (PTC) and other national and multinational companies kick started purchasing process of tobacco crop at the purchasing centre set up at Firdusabad (Charbagh)here on Monday, the growers protested the lower prices.

The purchasing companies have fixed maximum price of per kilogramme tobacco at Rs186 per kg, but the growers demanded the price to be fixed at Rs250 per kg.

Kashthkar Coordination Council (KCC) members alleged that officials of the federal commerce ministry, Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB) and the tobacco buying companies and a few selected growers gathered in Islamabad and fixed the prices without taking a large number of poor growers on board.

They accused the PTB of handpicking the farmers who always toed the line of companies at the cost of poor growers.

Liaqat Yousafzai, KCC general secretary, told this correspondentthattheyhad made it clear to the companies that the prices fixed for the current year were not acceptable to them.

`The companies` leaf mangers and entrepreneurs have been involved in downgrading the crop and reducing its price under a wellplanned strategy each year,` he said.

Both White Patta (WP) and Virginia Tobacco are widely grown in the district, but multinational companies allegedly do not pay for the varieties as per the expectations of the growers.

The growers said that in 2016, total demand of tobacco was 54.03 million kg, of which 51.425 million kg was Flue-Cured Virginia, andin the currentyear,the FCV requirement is 45.990 million kg.

Officials of the purchasing companies claimed that the required quota was announced by them through Pakistan Tobacco Board before the cultivation of the crop.

They said that the growers were free to execute agreements with the companies of their choice.