The Hindu Business Line : India to export tobacco to China after 12 years

New Delhi, Jan. 11 After a protracted gap of close to twelve years India can look forward to exporting its tobacco to China, where a protocol would be signed to the effect during the forthcoming visit of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, beginning on January 13, 2008.

Highly-placed sources in the Government told Business Line here that India and China would sign the Protocol on phytosanitary norms to pave the way for India’s exports of tobacco to China, which was suspended 12 years ago following the ban on Indian tobacco on grounds of objectionable pathogen.

With both sides agreeing on the phytosanitary norms eliminating the pathogen, India and China would ink the protocol on January 14, 2008 in Beijing. The sources said the Tobacco Board already had on hand an export order of 2.2 million kg of tobacco to be shipped to the Middle Kingdom, once the Protocol is signed.

Sources said India had the potential to export 15 to 20 million kg of tobacco to China in the next two years with the major beneficiaries being from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. They said the country’s tobacco exports during the first eight months of the current fiscal, including unmanufactured tobacco and tobacco products, logged a 7 per cent growth in volume and a 27 per cent growth in value, despite the steady appreciation of the rupee against the dollar.

In dollar terms, India’s exports of tobacco during April-November 2007 fetched $324.94 million, against $255.03 million in the comparable period of 2006. In rupee terms, tobacco exports yielded Rs 1316 crore during the first eight months of the current fiscal, against Rs 1154 crore in the corresponding period of 2006.

Sources said even as Indian tobacco and tobacco products had been leaving a footprint in West Europe, East Europe, West Asia Africa, South and South East Asia, and North and South America over the years with diversification of markets, the revival of the Chinese market would help in providing an important outlet in the coming years to Indian tobacco growers and traders.

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