India: Minister Warns Tobacco Traders of Action

Source from:  The Hindu 05/13/2016

Even as tobacco growers in Prakasam district are gearing up for a protracted struggle for a fair deal, the State government has decided to seek the Centre's intervention to create buoyancy in the market.

On instructions from Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Transport Minister Sidda Raghava Rao supervised the auctions at Ongole I auction platform along with Southern Black Soil (SBS) Regional Manager G. Bhaskar Reddy, and expressed dismay over the inactive participation by the traders.

The dismal show is fallout of cigarette manufacturers stopping production in the middle of the season in protest against larger pictorial warning made mandatory from April 1.

While the exporters adopted a wait-and-watch approach on the pretext of lack of confirmed orders from overseas buyers, the domestic manufacturers offered lower prices for different grades of tobacco, taking advantage of the present market condition, complained a group of farmers led by Ongole I Ryots' Association president S. Gurava Reddy. The Minister urged the traders to actively participate in the market and not create an unpleasant situation like the one witnessed last year. There was a spate of suicides by dejected growers last year as the sector was gripped by worst-ever crisis since declaration of crop holiday in the year 2000.

The Union and State governments would take stringent action those who stayed away from the market after submitting indents, he warned.

A delegation of farmers, under the leadership of Agriculture Minister P. Pulla Rao, will call on Union Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman next week.

Former Tobacco Board member Ch. Ranga Rao said that the farmers would resort to a series of protests starting with a demonstration in front of the Collectorate on Monday. Though the farmers adhered to the crop size of 120 million kg fixed by the Tobacco Board based on the indents placed by the manufacturers and traders, they were putting the farmers to trouble during the middle of the season, Mr. Gurava Reddy said.

A quantity of 12.03 million kg was sold at an average price of Rs. 127.75 per kg at SLS auction platforms till Thursday, Tobacco Board sources said. Enditem