Tobacco farmers rejoice as surge in demand brings them good prices

ONGOLE: Auctions conducted by Tobacco Board in Prakasam district are going on at a brisk pace. The tobacco farmers under Tobacco Board’s Southern Black Soil (SBS) and the Southern Light Soil (SLS) are happy over the prices offered by the buyers in the auctions.

“Earlier, we got very low prices for our produce and it led us to face huge losses for several years. But this year, due to the increased demand in the international market and the Tobacco Board’s initiation, we have been getting good prices for our product,” said Puli Ramachandra Rao, a farmer from Chimakurthy mandal.

On Saturday, auction was conducted at Vellampalli with 1,000 bales, Ongole-I - 480 bales (scrap and bits), Ongole - II : 600 (scrap and bits) Tangutur - I : 470 bales (scrap and bits), Kondepi : 820 bales. A total of 3,370 bales arrived and 953 of them were purchased at Rs 200 per kg and average price of Rs 177.71 per kg.   

On the other hand, a total of 2,864 bales arrived to the SLS region limit auction platforms i.e., Podili-1, Kanigiri, Kandukuri & 2, Kaligiri, DC Palli platforms and out of them, 2,552 bales were purchased at Rs 201 per kg and an average price of Rs 186.80 per kg.

Further, the board has also kicked off auctions of scrap and bits of tobacco stocks of the permitted farmers at Ongole-1 & Ongole -2, and in Tangutur (SBS) Kandukur 1 & 2 (SLS) Tobacco auction platforms from Saturday.

Executive director of the board Addanki Sridhar Babu in his recent visit to the Ongole regional office, assured the farmers to allocate tobacco platform centre for ‘Jutti’ (Fully exposed/discoloured leaf/ Pandugulla) stock purchase as a pilot project for this season. The farmers also requested the ED to take steps for the standardization of prices at all platforms.