Vijayawada: Indian Tobacco Board has reduced the crop size for Andhra Pradesh by 18% for the next crop season (2025-26). The board, at its governing council meeting held on Thursday, fixed the crop size at 142 million kgs, down from 167 million kgs (2024-25). This is the first time in recent past for the tobacco board to trim down the crop size. Taking the ongoing crisis in the auction platforms into consideration, the tobacco board decided to reduce the crop size. Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal, during his recent visit to the state, also directed officials to be stringent in enforcement of crop regulation. He asked tobacco growers to confine themselves to the authorized size to avoid fluctuations in the market. With tobacco fetching bumper profits last season, the growers upped the production, leaving the market in doldrums. Tobacco traders not only reduced the price, but also refrained from picking up stocks.The tobacco board anticipated that production during the current season might touch around 240 million kgs against the authorized size of 167 million kgs — which is nearly 30% more than the crop size authorized by the board. In addition, unauthorized production of black and white burley tobacco further complicated the market.The board also imposed a 21% cut for the northern light soils (NLS) region which produces premium leaf, trimming the crop size to 48.1 million kgs from 58.25 million kgs. Similarly, crop size for southern light soils (SLS) was brought down to 49.7 million kgs from 56.01 million kgs, SBCS region size was trimmed to 42.1 from 49.26 million kgs, while NBCS region size was cut down to 2.1 million kgs from 3.48 million kgs. The board also reduced the boron-wise crop size to bring down overall production in the state. Tobacco prices witnessed a steep fall from last year’s Rs 340 per kg to Rs 220 per kg during the ongoing auctions, which triggered the move to cut crop size for next year.
