• March 28, 2024

Andhra grower prices down by 20 percent

The average price paid this year to flue-cured tobacco growers in Andhra Pradesh, India, was about 20 percent down on that paid last year, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

This year, 190 million kg of flue-cured was sold over Andhra’s auction floors for an average price of Rs93 per kg; down from the average price of Rs116 per kg paid last year for a bigger crop.

Bright grade leaf, of which there was about 56 million kg, sold for an average price of Rs120.74 per kg this year, while the 74 million kg of medium-grade leaf sold for an average of Rs102.99 per kg and the 60 million kg of low-grade leaf sold for an average of Rs54.85 per kg.

Farmers who produced low-grade leaf and received the very lowest commercial payments were said to have received on top of the prices paid by the trade Rs20 per kg from the state and Indian governments in a package worth Rs285 million.

In 2014, flue-cured tobacco growers sold a crop of almost 214 million kg. The 2014-15 authorized flue-cured crop was set by the Tobacco Board at 172 million kg and the 2015-16 authorized crop has been pegged at 120 million, which will force farmers in many areas to grow crops other than tobacco.