Grading

Grading is one of the important production practice in flue cured virginia tobacco production.

Plant Position Grades

The main purpose of farm grades in black soil tobacco and plant position grades for light soil tobacco is to avoid dual grading at farmers level and traders level and thus reduce the market cost.

Packing

This helps the producer realise more income for his produce, saves time for the exporters and renders for the fixation of minimum support price and minimum export prices for each grade.

Grade specifications of traditional black soils and southern light soil tobaccos

Grade	Colour	Blemish not to exceed	Equivalent Agmark grade
Farm I	Brightlemon or orange	25%	1 to 4
Farm II	Lightbrownish yellow or brownish lemon	25%	LBY
Farm III	Light brown	50%	LBY 2
Farm IV	Brown	50%	Brown
Farm V	Dark brown	50%	Dark Brown
Farm VI	Light greenish orange	25%	LG
Farm V II	Light medium green	25%	LMG
Farm V III	Medium green	25%	MG
Farm IX	Dark green	-	DG
Farm X	Colour may range from orange, yellow green or brown	-	PL,Bits

Plant position grades for Northern light soils Tobacco

Primings	Lugs	Cutters & leaf	Tips
P10 P1L PIJ	X10 X1L XIJ	L10 LIL L1J	T20 T2L T2J
P20 P2L P2J	X20 X2L XIJ	L20 L2L L2J	T30 T3L T3J
P30 P3L P3J	X30 X3L XIJ	L30 L3L L3J	T40 T4J T4R
P40 P4L P4J	X40 X1L XIJ	L40 L4L L4J	T50 T5J T5R
P40 P5L P5J	X50 X1L XIJ	L50 L5R L5L L5L
BG BMG		NDM NDD	TG TMG

Where 1 to 5 denote increasing percentage of blemish

1: Up to 20%
2: Up to 20-30%
3: Up to 30-35%
4: Up to 35-80%
5: for more than 80% blemish.

P: Primings X: Lugs L: Cutters and Leaf T: Tips

L: Lemon colour O: Orange colour

G: Green colour J: Immature tobacco

BG: Bottom greenBMG: Bottom medium green

TG: Top green TMG: Top medium green

R: Mahogany colour NDB: Non-descript (perished leaf) dark

HD burley

• HD burley is graded priming wise only as bottom, middle and top leaf. Under each category , two types of grades are given

WBR :

• Bright tan coloured with less blemish, good body and fully matured lengthy leaves

WBL :

• Lower short leaves with buff colouration, weak body, moderately blemish and fairly shattery.

Burley tobacco grades

WBF:

• Flyings

WBB:

• Bottom leaves

WBM:

• Middle leaves

WBT:

• Top leaves

ND:

• Non descriptive

Lanka Tobacco

1.Kotaku:

• Top two well developed leaves of the plant.

2.Baraku:

• Next two well developed leaves.

3.Mattasam:

• The next two or three middle leaves.

4.Gulla or Tepa:

• Lower leaves poor in body and size.

Bidi tobacco grading

• There is no standard system of grading bidi tobacco at present, except for the sorting of the produce into four fractions which have alresdy been refered to as
  • Bhuka
  • Geran
  • Galia
  • Lakada

Bidi tobacco sample is valued on the basis of

• It's physical charectes, viz., colour, thickness, pling of the leaf, granulation, brightness or lusture
• It's smoking qualities

Oriental tobacco grading

Type	Characteristics
HAB	Comprises of Outches/Outches Alti and best of 'Annas' bodies pliable with lemon / Orange, running green and light brown colours. Length 1.5" to 5".
HB	Thinner bodied, pliable, lemon/orange to lemony. Length less than 7".
HK	Thinner bodied, brown, hard green, shattery leaf with varying lengths upto 8.5".

Suncured natu tobacoo grading

Type	Characteristics
K-CDK	Medium to heavy-bodied leaf, oily, brown to dark brown in colour
K-CBR	Medium bodied, oily, nut brown in colour.
K-CG	Thin to medium bodied, light green to dark green, devoid of oils

Light soil burley tobacco

Type	Characteristics
RBA	Blend of flyings and lugs of first quality. Buff in colour, fluffier tobaccos
RBB	Blend of flyings and lugs of second quality. Fluffier tobaccos deep buff in colour.
RBC	Blend of flyings and lugs of third quality. Fluffier tobaccos deep buff to light tan in colour.
RBROC	Blend of flyings, lugs, cutters, leaf and tips of second and third quality. Light to medium bodied tobaccos buff to light tan in colour. Plain to spotted having reasonable flavour.