VIJAYAWADA: The Tobacco Board commenced auctions for sale of FCBV Tobacco at six auction platforms including Podili, DC Palli, Kanigiri, Ongole-1, Kondapi and Vellampalli on February 17 in the first phase.
“We are yet to commence auction at Kaligir as reported and it will start on February 26. Further, we do not have A, B grades nomenclature, but only broad classification for FCV tobacco - bright, medium and low grades, which are further divided into 64 grades,” Tobacco Board officials clarified.
Stating that it is too early for one to come to a conclusion regarding market response as the auction has commenced only for two days, the officials said during the first couple of days normally only sample amount is released to gauge the mood of the market.
On February 17 in the DC Palli auction platform, the highest price recorded for quality tobacco was `170 per kg and the lowest price `165 per kg and all the 27 bales offered for sale were marketed. The average price realised was `168.48 per kg. The highest price recorded during last year on the starting day was only `165 per kg.
According to the Board officials, on February 18, a total of 15 bales were offered at the same auction platform and all of them were sold. The tobacco price in auctions depends on the quality of the tobacco offered for sale, competition for such grade and demand, he explained. Since the price of tobacco is a factor of quality, the Tobacco Board has taken up all the necessary measures to produce quality tobacco to meet the requirement of domestic and international customers and at the same time taking all the necessary steps to safeguard the interest of the farmers in terms of getting better price to their produce in the auctions.