The Commerce Ministry has requested help from the Indian foreign service to locate new tobacco export markets, according to a news agency report.

The External Affairs Ministry was asked for assistance as part of an ongoing programme to boost agricultural exports, according to a Press Trust of India report published online by the Business Standard. India produced nearly 294 million kg of export-quality flue-cured Virginia in 2014-15. Current major tobacco export markets are the US, Russia, Belgium, Korea and Egypt, the report states.