Andhra Growers to Rally in Protest at Poor Prices

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 05/11/2012

Tobacco growers in Andhra Pradesh are due to hold a rally next week to protest about low prices and poor levels of trader participation at auction sales, according to a story in the Hindu, relayed by the TMA. The decision to hold the rally, which will take place on Monday at the Guntur offices of the Tobacco Board of India, was taken at a growers' meeting held yesterday. The growers are upset over the decline in leaf prices across auction platforms in Ongole as well as the poor level of trader participation. The selling season began in late February and, to date, about 38 million kg of flue-cured has been sold. N Ranga Rao, the Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam's (APRS) secretary for the district of Prakasam, said farmers had so far received an average price of Rs102.28 per kg, compared with Rs112 per kg last year. And the Virginia Tobacco Growers Welfare Association's honorary president, T. Ranga Rao, has expressed concerns about a further fall in prices, because bright grade leaf accounts for just 30 per cent of this year's output of 161 million kg, whereas, according to APRS district assistant secretary, D. Gopinath, bright grades accounted for 70 per cent of total production last year. Enditem