Leaf tobacco prices fall as growing costs rise

Flue-cured tobacco growers operating in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh are urging the union government to address immediately their concerns about a steep fall in sales this year, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

The growers are said to be faced with making losses this year because of a ‘slowdown’ in the state’s tobacco auctions.

They said that while the manufacturers and exporters were claiming the slowdown had been caused by a global oversupply of leaf, the current predicament was down to the government and its policies.

The growers argue that since flue-cured tobacco is a regulated crop and the crop size set by the Tobacco Board according to trade assessments, the total harvest should be bought.

They say also that flue-cured tobacco prices have fallen by between 20 percent and 30 percent during the past three years while production costs have rise by 30 percent.

The problems are not impacting only flue-cured growers, and so farmers from 12 tobacco-growing states in India are preparing to take part in a protest rally in Delhi.