Good Agricultural Practices (GAP)

Philip Morris International (PMI) is one of the world’s largest tobacco purchasers. Each year, we purchase approximately 600 thousands 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 the prevention of child and forced labor. It is part of our commitment to social responsibility.

To help achieve these goals, we've developed a set of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) guidelines that are designed to enable us to assess the farming processes of our suppliers and to identify opportunities for improvement.

Good agricultural practices are defined as those that are economically viable, safe, and produce a quality crop, while sustaining, protecting, or enhancing the environment.

We developed our GAP program with the help of tobacco farmers, leaf companies, government agencies, and universities. Implementation of our GAP guidelines is compulsory for all our tobacco suppliers.

The GAP program has six main components:

• farm productivity, farm worker safety, including prevention of Green Tobacco Sickness, and importantly, labor policies preventing child labor and forced labor; 
• 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.