The Hindu : Tobacco auctions to commence on January 23

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 21, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Tobacco auctions to commence on January 23

By Our Staff Reporter

GUNTUR, JAN. 20. Tobacco auctions in Andhra Pradesh will commence on January 23. Initially, the auction floors at D.C.Palli and Kaligiri in Nellore district in the southern light soils (SLS) region would be opened. The process would be commenced in the remaining 19 platforms in a phased manner. The Chairman of the Tobacco Board, P. Dayachary, said on Tuesday that coordination committees, with representatives of farmers and traders, would be formed at auction-floor and regional levels. Auction superintendents would be conveners for the coordination committees at the auction platforms and regional managers would be conveners at the regional level. He said the committees would intervene to sort out any problem that might surface during auction. The board had fixed the crop size for the year 2003-2004 at 111 million kg in Andhra Pradesh. However, it was expected that about 140 million kg of crop was grown in the State. In fact, the board had fixed a crop size of 53 million kg for Karnataka and the farmers had raised over 73 million kg there. As much as 42 million kg of tobacco had been sold by Monday in Karnataka. The increase in crop size and the pile of carry-forward stocks had their impact on the prices of crop in Karnataka. While the average price was Rs 43.20 a kg last year in Karnataka, it had dwindled to Rs 38.16 this year. Traders had been saying that they did not have many export orders resulting in decline in price. The Karnataka effect was likely to be felt even with regard to prices of the crop in Andhra Pradesh. However, export orders might come in and the prices might jack up to a reasonable level once the auction commenced, feel trade circles. However, they maintain that the farmers should stick to the crop size fixed by the board to keep the markets vibrant.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh