Andhra Pradesh, the main tobacco-growing state in India, recorded its best ever auction-sales of flue-cured Virginia (FCV).

By 24 April 2006 over 68 million kg had been sold, averaging a million kg a day.  This is the highest ever in terms of volumes since the mandatory auctioning of Andhra Pradesh’s FCV tobacco was initiated by the Tobacco Board in 1985. The current tobacco crop-size is 147 million kg, down from 153 million kg a year ago. But only 24 million kg were sold in the first 68 auction days of the previous season.
In terms of value, the average price per kg was Rs 46.8, almost 18 per cent higher than the figure of around Rs 40 for the same period of last year.