Record first day of flue-cured sales on Karnataka’s auction floors

Karnataka’s flue cured prices touched Rs140 per kg, a record high, on the first day of auctions, according to a story in The Hindu published on Friday.

“This is an all-time high in the history of tobacco auctions in Karnataka,” the chairman of the Tobacco Board, G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, was quoted as saying. “The main reason is strong global demand for tobacco grown in light soil.”

“In Andhra Pradesh, a similar trend is prevailing – strong demand and prices firming up – for crop grown in light soil.”

But the high prices in Karnataka were due also to the fact that the area planted to tobacco, at 94,000 ha, was down by more than 11 per cent on that of the previous season.

In all, 288 bales or 34,358 kg of tobacco was offered at Karnataka’s 11 auction platforms during the first day of sales, and all of it was sold – for an average price of Rs139.49 per kg.”