NEW DELHI: Tobacco export from India, the third-largest exporter in the world, shot up by about 62 per cent to exceed Rs 2,900 crore till February of the 2008-09 fiscal, boosted by a surge in realisation and a weak rupee.
“India exported tobacco worth Rs 2,912.29 crore between April 2008 and February this year against Rs 1,797.65 crore in a year earlier,” a senior Tobacco Board official said.
In dollar terms, the export has shot up by 43 per cent to $640.77 million from a year earlier, he added.
However, tobacco export, comprising raw tobacco and its products, rose 10 per cent in volume terms to 2,02,174 tonnes between April 2008 and February 2009, compared with 1,82,238 tonnes in the same period the previous year, he said.
The export of tobacco in February rose in volume to 14,360 tonnes from 13,182 tonnes a year earlier. In value terms, the shipment more than doubled to Rs 243.30 crore, compared with Rs 121.60 crore in February 2008, he added.
“Record prices of the Indian tobacco coupled with the depreciation of the rupee contributed immensely to the surge in the value of exports,” the official said. The Indian tobacco prices hit records due to a shortfall in output in some of the major produ cing countries, including China, last fiscal.
Source : Business Line