Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)

Philip Morris International (PMI) is one of the world’s largest tobacco purchasers. Each year, we purchase over 400 thousand tons of tobacco leaf from leaf suppliers and farmers in over 30 countries.

Although we do not grow tobacco, we are committed to promoting the growth of high quality tobacco under conditions that protect the environment and ensure sustainable crops. We are also committed to progressively eliminate child labor and other labor abuses where they are found and to achieve safe and fair working conditions on all farms from which PMI sources tobacco.

With the help of tobacco farmers, leaf companies, government agencies, NGOs and universities we have developed our Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) program.  We require each of our suppliers to follow our GAP program which is designed to enable us to assess the farming processes of our suppliers and to identify opportunities for improvement.

The GAP program has six main components:

• agricultural labor practices defines the labor principles and standards PMI expects to be met on all farms that have contracts to supply tobacco for PMI; 
• variety management and integrity - safeguarding the consistency of our products;
• crop management - using best practices in farming;
• integrated pest management - planning combined with protection;
• sustainability - including the use of alternative fuels, the maintenance of forests, and the protection of water resources;
• product integrity - ensuring we receive the right quality of tobacco.