Sustainability in Tobacco: It Is Not an Add-On, It Is a Condition of Trade

Why responsible sourcing matters to serious buyers – and how we do it

---

Sustainability has become a buzzword in many industries. In tobacco, it has always been a practical concern.

Why? Because tobacco is a seasonal, agricultural commodity. It depends on land, water and labour. If you do not look after those things, you do not have a crop. And if you do not run a clean, safe, honest operation, you lose access to serious markets.

Here is how we think about sustainability – and why it is built into the way we work.

---

The Commercial Case for Sustainability

Let us start with the blunt truth. Serious customers audit their suppliers on people and environment before they audit them on tobacco. That is a fact of doing business in regulated markets.

The reasons are straightforward:

• Reputation risk – No one wants to be associated with forced labour or environmental damage
• Regulatory risk – Importing countries are tightening their rules on sourcing
• Supply chain risk – If the people who grow and process your leaf are not looked after, you lose the supply

So sustainability is not an add-on. It is a condition of trading with serious customers. And we treat it that way.

---

Our Approach: People, Environment, and Honest Dealing

We break sustainability into three areas: people, environment, and honest dealing. Each one matters, and each one is our responsibility.

---

1. People

The tobacco industry employs hundreds of thousands of people in Zimbabwe, from growers to factory workers to transporters. Their welfare matters—not just morally, but commercially.

We work to the standards set out in:

• ILO Convention 138 – Minimum age
• ILO Convention 182 – Worst forms of child labour
• ILO Convention 184 – Safety and health in agriculture
• Zimbabwean labour law

What that means in practice:

• No child labour. None. Not in our operations, and not in our supply chain.
• No forced labour. No debt bondage, no holding of identity documents.
• Fair pay. Paid on time, at or above legal and sector rates.
• A safe site. Training, protective equipment, clean drinking water, proper handling of chemicals and dust.
• Fair treatment. No harassment, no discrimination, and a way to raise a complaint without fear.
• Freedom to join a union and bargain collectively.

Where a customer runs a labour practices programme or a sustainability assessment, we take part in it and act on what it finds.

---

2. Environment

Tobacco is an agricultural product, and agriculture has an environmental footprint. We work to manage ours.

Our operations sit under the licences required by Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Act, covering waste, effluent, air emissions and hazardous substances. We report as required.

On the ground, we do three things:

Recycling. Cardboard, paper, wood and metal do not need to go to landfill. We separate and recycle what we can.

Energy and water management. Drying tobacco takes energy and water. We watch both carefully and work to reduce them where we can.

By-product use. Tobacco by-products that are fit for use are sold on for use rather than dumped.

---

Trees and Curing Wood

Curing tobacco takes heat, and in Zimbabwe a lot of that heat has historically come from wood. That is a real problem for the country’s forests, and it is one the whole industry has to answer for.

As a licensed buyer, we contribute to the statutory afforestation levy on tobacco sales, which funds replanting. It is one small part of a larger national effort.

---

3. Honest Dealing

Sustainability is not just about environmental care. It is also about how you do business.

Know your customer. We know who we are trading with. We check identity, ownership, licences and end market before we open an account, and we keep checking.

No bribes. We do not pay bribes and we do not accept them. That applies to our staff, our agents and anyone acting for us.

Full records. We keep full records of every transaction and retain them. If a regulator or customer wants to see them, they are available.

Legal markets. We sell business to business, into declared legal markets, in quantities that match real demand.

---

Why It Matters to Buyers

If you are buying tobacco, the sustainability practices of your supplier matter to you.

• You are accountable to your own customers and regulators. You need to know that the leaf you buy was produced responsibly.
• Your supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If your supplier loses access to labour, land or licences, you lose the supply.
• You pay for problems eventually. Contaminated leaf, labour disputes, environmental fines – these costs end up in the price you pay.

So sustainability is not just about doing the right thing. It is about doing the smart thing.

---

What Serious Buyers Should Expect

When you audit a supplier, look for these things:

Area	What to Check
Labour	Child labour policy, pay records, complaint mechanism
Environment	Licences, waste management, energy and water tracking
Compliance	TIMB records, export permits, customs documents
Traceability	Bale records from auction floor to packed case
Honest dealing	KYC procedures, transaction records

We keep these records and make them available. We would rather be ready for an audit than be surprised by it.

---

The Bottom Line

Sustainability is not a marketing claim. It is a set of practices that protect your supply chain, your reputation and your access to markets.

We do not pretend to be perfect. But we do take responsibility seriously – for our people, for the land, and for the way we do business. Those are the conditions of trading with serious customers.

---

Mogo Tobacco operates responsibly, ethically and transparently. Contact us to discuss your requirements.

---

---