Water stewardship in Türkiye: Strengthening resilience across operations and the supply chain

Our nature strategy is grounded in the understanding that the natural resources our business relies on—soil, water, and forests—are finite, and their degradation directly threatens long-term resilience and value creation. Safeguarding and restoring these resources is therefore not only an environmental aim—it’s a business imperative. From a risk perspective, the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events may reduce water availability across our manufacturing sites and tobacco supply chain, potentially leading to increased sourcing and operational costs, and supply disruptions. Reflecting the global relevance of these risks, our Value Plan 2030+ includes goals to strengthen water stewardship across priority manufacturing sites, increase circular water use, and optimize water use in our tobacco supply chain. 

Operating in a water‑stressed context 

In Türkiye, water dependency is particularly visible. Many regions in the country are increasingly affected by climate change impacts, including rising temperatures and more variable rainfall, which are intensifying pressure on water availability across key regions, in combination with growing industrial and agricultural demand. 

Türkiye is home to one of our major manufacturing sites—the Torbalı factory near the Küçük Menderes Basin—which supplies more than 20 countries. The country also hosts one of our largest tobacco supply chains, with approximately 57,000 contracted farmers cultivating tobacco across multiple provinces and seven river basins. PMI’s global water risk assessments have identified the Torbalı factory as a priority site within PMI’s water stewardship agenda, reflecting both the level of water stress in the Küçük Menderes Basin and the site’s strategic role within the company’s manufacturing footprint. Applying the same risk-based lens to agriculture, insights from our global water risk assessment have also highlighted the Turkish tobacco supply chain as a priority for stewardship action, given the combination of basin-level water stress in key growing regions, increasing irrigation exposure for certain tobacco types, and the scale and strategic importance of this sourcing footprint.

These factors make water stewardship in Türkiye a strategic priority for our operational resilience, agricultural productivity, and the livelihoods of the farming communities we rely on. 

At Torbalı: A factory-wide shift to AWS water management 

At our Torbalı manufacturing facility, we aligned our water management system with the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) standard, becoming the first factory in Türkiye to achieve AWS certification in 2019—a status we have maintained ever since. This framework requires us to look beyond site-level efficiency and assess catchment-level water balance, water quality, ecosystem health, and shared water governance, considering the wider river basin that’s shared with other users. 

The process of aligning with AWS included detailed water balance assessments to map where water enters, is used, and is discharged across the site; investments in closed-loop water reuse systems that recirculate processed water back into operations; wastewater treatment upgrades enabling treated effluent to be safely reused for non-potable (non-drinkable) applications (e.g., utilities and cleaning); improved rainwater management through segregation, capture, and drainage controls to reduce runoff and protect water quality; and targeted employee awareness programs that translate water goals into day-to-day operating practices. As a result, freshwater withdrawals at the site were reduced by 33 percent per unit of production in 2025 compared to our 2019 baseline. In parallel, treated wastewater reuse has steadily increased, with 21,866 m³ reused in 2025 alone and a cumulative 143,024 m³ reused since 2019, helping to reduce pressure on local freshwater resources. 

Beyond the factory gates: Helping farmers use water more efficiently 

Agriculture is the most water-intensive area within our footprint in Türkiye. We embed water stewardship through PMI’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) framework and a risk-based approach informed by both global and local water risk assessments. While traditional Oriental tobacco cultivated in Türkiye is relatively drought-resilient, the growing share of Virginia (flue-cured) and Burley (air-cured) tobacco increases irrigation dependence and related risks. This development further reinforces the need for efficient water management practices in supply chain. 

To continue delivering on our water stewardship ambition, we have conducted water-risk assessments in the Küçük Menderes, Büyük Menderes, Gediz, Asi, Kızılırmak, and Fırat–Dicle basins to better understand risks associated with drought, flooding, seasonal variability, and water stress. We work closely with suppliers to ensure that 100 percent of their contracted tobacco farmers receive annual training under PMI’s GAP framework, including practical advice on optimizing water use, as well as fertilizer and pesticide application.  

Where relevant, we promote efficient irrigation techniques and related tools through targeted, project-based initiatives. This includes supporting the adoption of drip irrigation systems to optimize water use in Virginia and Burley production, as well as weather-based tools to help farmers irrigate at the right time and in the right amounts based on local conditions.  

In the Büyük Menderes Basin, rainwater collection systems were established in areas where seasonal variability was identified as a risk, and 50 water tanks—each with a 10 m³ capacity—were distributed to farmers to collect rainwater from rooftops for tobacco seedbed irrigation, enabling the collection of 7,500 m³ of rainwater since 2019. We are also strengthening a more basin-aware approach—using local water risk-assessment insights to prioritize actions in the most water-stressed growing areas and to better understand shared challenges such as groundwater depletion and water quality pressures.

Collaborating with stakeholders on shared water challenges

Addressing water challenges requires collaboration among multiple users. We therefore proactively engage with local authorities, municipalities, universities, industry associations, and agricultural stakeholders across the basins where we source tobacco. Through regional water panels and multi-stakeholder forums, we share water-stewardship insights and lessons learned from our AWS implementation at Torbalı (including site water balance, efficiency, and reuse measures) and participate in dialogue on groundwater depletion, pollution pressures, and long-term basin resilience. In January 2026, we co-organized an ESİAD Water Summit with the Aegean Industrialists and Businessmen Association (ESİAD) and the local Chamber of Commerce to discuss water scarcity and practical mitigation actions in the Küçük Menderes catchment area.

Looking ahead

Our focus will continue to be on advancing basin-level water stewardship in the Küçük Menderes Basin and building on the foundation established through AWS alignment at the Torbalı factory. While maintaining a strong focus on water efficiency and circularity on-site, we plan to increasingly extend our efforts beyond factories, in collaboration with local stakeholders, to support water restoration and recovery initiatives that strengthen the long-term resilience of the basin. 

In parallel, we plan to continue strengthening water stewardship across our tobacco supply chain by using insights from PMI’s global and local water-risk assessments. The insights we learned in Türkiye are already being scaled across 10 PMI factories in EEMA and Asia—helping strengthen our water resilience in other priority, water-stressed regions.