Karnataka readying for tobacco auctions

Tobacco auctions in Karnataka are set to commence in the first week of September. The Tobacco Board has fixed the state's 2007 crop size at 95 million kg, an increase of 14 per cent over the pervious year's target (2006).

According to a Tobacco Board official, harvest is under progress in all tobacco growing regions and the production level is expected to remain at last year's level of 97 million kg.

"Due to excess rainfall in parts of H D Kote, Periyapatna and Ramnathapura, the crop's vegetative growth has suffered a set back. However, dry regions like Hunsur and Kampalapura have reported good growth," the official added. 
 

STORY THUS FAR Andhra FCV tobacco auctions as on 27-July-2007
Region	Quantity Authorized  (M.kgs)	Total   Bales  Sold	Quantity  Marketed	Average Price  (Rs/kg)
NBS	5.25	48,938	62,22,590	42.78
CBS	5.74	40,969	54,15,218	43.38
SBS	42.48	4,18,085	5,48,48,842	45.38
SLS	49.50	4,36,654	5,77,49,622	44.86
NLS	42.59	4,09,196	4,77,18,581	54.13
Total	145.56	13,53,842	17,19,54,853	47.47

In 2006, the state's tobacco crop size was fixed at 83.27 million kg. However, owing to the good quality of the crop, 97 million kg was produced and sold. Farmers earned an average Rs 55.94 per kg against Rs 48.06 in 2005.

Karnataka has 85,000 hectares under tobacco cultivation in the districts of Mysore, Hassan and Shimoga with 41,000 registered growers and 56,630 barns.

The Tobacco Board has fixed the following quantities for different auction platforms in the state.

H D Kote 7.98 million kg (last year 6.72 million kg), Hunsur-I 10.63 million kg (9.37 million kg), Hunsur-II 9.73 million kg (8.60 million kg), Periyapatna-I 12.15 million kg (10.84 million kg), Periyapatna-II 10.22 million kg (9.07 million kg), Periyapatna-III 9.87 million kg (8.71 million kg), Kampalapura-I 8.98 million kg and Kampalapura-II 7.65 million kg, Ramnathapura 15.71 million kg (13.98 million kg), and Shimoga 1.15 million kg (1.30 million kg).

Guntur auction ends

The seven-month long tobacco auctions (2006-07) have ended in Guntur with farmers selling 171,954,853 kg of flue-cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco for Rs 816.27 crore at an average price of Rs 47.47 a kg, considered the highest. Last year, the farmers produced 145.36 million kg for an average price of Rs 46.33 a kg.

The farmers harvested 83.74 million kg of bright (super quality) grade tobacco, 56.10 million kg of medium grade crop and 32.09 million kg of low grade tobacco. With production exceeding the authorised crop of 145.56 million kg by around 27 million kg, the Tobacco Board was forced to impose a penalty of 15 per cent on the excess crop value.

According to the figures provided by the board, the farmers of Devarapalli auction in West Godavari district earned the maximum average price of Rs 55.46 a kg and their counterparts of Thorredu floor in Khammam district were paid an average minimum price of Rs 42.38 a kg.

The farmers of southern light soils (SLS) in Prakasam and Nellore districts had produced 57,749,622 kg tobacco and earned Rs 257.06 crore. The growers of southern black soils (SBS) in Prakasam district sold 54,848,842 kg for Rs 248.90 crore and their counterparts of northern light soils (NLS) in the two Godavari districts harvested 47,718,581 kg for Rs 258.34 crore.

In Khammam district, the farmers of northern black soils (NBS) reaped 6,222,590 kg tobacco for Rs 26.62 crore. Their counterparts of central black soils (CBS) in Krishna and Guntur districts cured 5,415,218 kg and reaped Rs 23.49 crore for the crop.

J Suresh Babu, the chairman of the Tobacco Board, said the board had fixed 150 million kg as the target for 2007-08, allowing for 10 per cent additional crop.

According to the board chairman, auctions were incident free and farmers were satisfied with market prices, which did not fall despite the massive crop supply.