What we can evidence, not what we can claim.

Curing fuel — deforestation-free by design. Wood-fired curing is the tobacco sector’s largest environmental liability in Zambia. The Group’s policy is that curing demand is met from dedicated fast-growing fuelwood plantations established for the purpose, sized to the crop, so that no indigenous woodland is cut for curing — supplemented by high-efficiency barn designs that materially reduce fuel per kilogram of cured leaf.

Water stewardship. The Mkushi estate operates on secured year-round water rights from three on-farm dams holding 17.8 million m³ — irrigation drawn against a measured reserve (peak dry-season draw ~65% of storage) rather than seasonal rainfall or shared river abstraction. Centre-pivot irrigation delivers controlled application, and eleven consecutive years of per-pivot soil analysis (fertility, pH, nutrient movement) drive precision fertiliser programmes instead of blanket application.

Energy & logistics. The Lilayi plant is designed around the TAZARA rail corridor: leaf will move from the field edge to the plant and onward to port on rail, avoiding the road-freight legs — and their fuel burn — that fragmented competitors require. On-site solar generation is under evaluation for the plant’s daylight-heavy processing season.

Baseline before claims. The Group’s carbon approach follows the sequence measure → reduce → offset the residual: a GHG Protocol baseline (Scope 1–3) is commissioned before any reduction or neutrality claim is published. We make no carbon-neutrality claim until the baseline and funded reductions exist to support one.

Regulatory frame. Operations are conducted within Tobacco Board of Zambia requirements and ZEMA environmental clearance for the processing site.

Employment model. The Group’s employment model is direct hire: a permanent core across agronomy, engineering, processing and administration, expanded by seasonal roles through transplanting, reaping, curing, grading and the threshing season — built out as the estate transfers (2026) and the plant commissions (2028).

Standards. All employment — direct and contracted — is structured to meet the agricultural labour practice requirements applied by multinational customers, including alignment with the Sustainable Tobacco Programme (STP). That means a wage floor benchmarked above the Zambian statutory minimum, compliance with ILO core conventions, freedom of association, and independent auditability. From the first 2027/28 crop, compliance is enforced through the same bale-level chain-of-custody system that underpins the Group’s commercial traceability: every bale traces to a field, a crew and a season.

A fixed share, not a gesture. The Group commits 2% of consolidated net profit to a dedicated community-development foundation serving the districts around the Mkushi estate and the Lilayi plant. The commitment scales with the business, directed to education, healthcare and local enterprise.

Education first. The foundation’s planned flagship is the construction and operation of a primary school with water and sanitation facilities and teacher housing, serving the families of the Group’s workforce and the surrounding community. Beyond its social value, the school is the Group’s most direct answer to the sector’s most material labour risk: children in classrooms, parents in formal employment.

Local first. Recruitment, services and inputs are procured locally where quality and availability allow, and the planned Lilayi district programme extends to sports grounds, clinic support and, over time, vocational training facilities.

Seed to carton, one system. The chain is built to be owned end to end, so custody never transfers to an unaudited third party. From the first 2027/28 crop, own-grown leaf is logged at the field; from the plant’s 2028 commissioning, every bale entering the Lilayi line carries a unique lot identity linking it to origin, grower, grade and processing run, and packed cartons carry the processing lot through to export documentation. The same record answers a buyer’s quality query and an auditor’s labour query. Partner-sourced lots trading today carry documented supplier provenance.

Audit readiness. Procurement teams, banks, insurers and logistics partners can request the documentation pack: the signed ZDA agreement on tax and duty incentives, ZEMA environmental clearance and Tobacco Board of Zambia licensing. Certificate and registration numbers are listed as they are issued.