Andhra Growers Suffer at Hands of Below-Par Prices

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 06/23/2011

Tobacco auctions in Andhra Pradesh are being disrupted at 11 auction platforms or more as low prices keep growers away. Sales are continuing at only nine platforms, according to the Tobacco Board of India. The board is making efforts to resume sales wherever they have stopped with chairman, G. Kamalavardhana Rao, once again appealing to tobacco buyers to support the growers by meeting promises to buy 180 million kg of flue-cured for at least Rs120 per kg. Recently, volume sales in Andhra were running at about one third below the level of those of a year ago. The average price stood at Rs112.16 per kg. Last week, the Andhra Pradesh state legislator, Kandula Narayana Reddy, went on a hunger strike in an attempt to force the Andhra government to provide Rs500 million to help tobacco producers disadvantaged by the current low prices being paid by tobacco manufacturers. Reddy, of the opposition Telugu Desam party, urged the board to use the Rs2.5 billion fund at its disposal to stimulate competition on the auction floors. Enditem