KT&G (CEO Min Young-jin) officers and employees will carry out volunteer work to help leaf tobacco harvesting on August 13 in the Gyeongsangbuk-do region, one of the major producing areas for leaf tobacco.

KT&G sets out on a farm support work project every summer, considering that leaf tobacco farms suffer from labor shortages at harvest time. This year, more than 70 officers and employees from the KT&G Gimcheon raw material plant are scheduled to perform volunteer activities for each region three times in total.

By its very nature, the mechanized planting of leaf tobacco is difficult, with the result that harvesting and drying are mostly carried out manually; however, as the farm population is decreasing and aging, more farm hands are needed, particularly in busy farming seasons.

The KT&G manager of the raw material production office Shin Song-ho, who volunteered this time, said, “If you are sweating to harvest the tobacco leaves with the staff, you get to understand the hardship of the cultivators and to better communicate with them,” adding that “because we can pass down the know-how to produce high-quality leaf tobacco to the farmers, it’s like killing two birds with one stone.”

In addition, KT&G is discharging its responsibilities as the nation’s cigarette company, such as purchasing the entire crop of domestic leaf tobacco, thus contributing to generating income for the farm households, and striving to have a win-win relationship with farmers such as benefitting the cultivators with physical checkups and supporting their middle and high school students with school uniforms.