Centre permits sale of excess tobacco in Andhra Pradesh for 2025-26 crop season

New Delhi: The centre has permitted the sale of excess 'Flue-Cured Virginia tobacco' of registered and unregistered growers in Andhra Pradesh for the 2025-26 crop season at the auction platforms authorised by the Tobacco Board, according to a commerce ministry notification.

Flue-cured tobacco is tobacco dried in a special, smoke-free barn using heat channelled through metal pipes, or flues.

In July, a team from the Department of Commerce, led by Additional Secretary Nitin Kumar Yadav, visited Andhra Pradesh to review the current market conditions for this tobacco.


Also read: India’s farmers cut back on seeds, fertilisers as rains fail, Rallis India CEO says

The centre has relaxed the operation of a provision of the Tobacco Board Act in Andhra Pradesh "for the auctions during the crop season 2025-2026, and permits the sale of excess Flue-Cured Virginia tobacco of the registered growers and unauthorised Flue-Cured Virginia tobacco of the unregistered growers at the auction platforms authorised by the Tobacco Board," the notification dated September 24 said.