Tobacco for Nicotine Extraction
An extraction plant is not really buying tobacco. It is buying alkaloid per tonne, and everything else is handling cost. Two lots that look the same in a sack can behave quite differently once they are through the plant, which is why extractors care far more about the material behind the grade name than about the grade name itself.
LR Tobacco supplies tobacco for nicotine extraction from the Charotar region of Kheda district, Gujarat. It is a family tobacco business established in 1958, working with its own crop and with growers across the belt, and supplying extraction plants alongside bidi and cigarette manufacturers.
Why Charotar leaf suits nicotine extraction
Alkaloid concentration in tobacco is set by variety, soil nitrogen, position on the stalk, water stress and the way the leaf is cured. Charotar farming pushes several of those in the same direction.
The crop here is grown rain-fed with very little irrigation, so the plant works under water stress, and water stress tends to raise alkaloid concentration in the leaf. The belt also grows varieties that sit at the stronger end of the range to begin with, and the traditional practice is sun-curing rather than flue-curing, which retains strength rather than driving it off.
For a buyer working on yield, that combination means fewer tonnes handled for the same output and less dead weight moving through the plant. More on how nicotine varies by tobacco type.
Nicotine extraction raw material we supply from India
Extraction plants buy across the range, from whole leaf at the top to sieved fines at the bottom. The right choice depends on what the process is built for rather than on what is cheapest by weight.
- Whole leaf. Graded, sun-cured, unbroken. The strongest material we sell, bought where yield per tonne decides the cost.
- Bidi patti. Graded leaf material from the bidi stream, bought both by bidi makers and by extractors.
- Refuse. Broken leaf and offcuts from grading and handling, bought in bulk as feedstock.
- Rava. The coarse granular fraction off the sieve, bought where the particle size suits the process.
- Dust. The fine fraction off the sieve, the lowest cost per tonne of anything we sell.
- Stems. Stem material separated from the leaf, weaker than lamina and priced accordingly.
Most Indian extraction plants run on the byproduct end of that list rather than on whole leaf, because the alkaloid is what they are after and the leaf premium buys them nothing. Why extraction plants buy tobacco scrap, dust and rava.
Buying on assay rather than on price per tonne
Strength varies by form, by grade, by season and by crop. We do not publish a blanket figure for any of them, because a number taken from an earlier crop is not the material you would be paying for. We work from what is actually in stock, and lots are tested before they are dispatched.
The comparison that matters is cost per unit of alkaloid recovered, landed at your plant, from material that behaves the same way each time. Lots ranked that way often come out in a different order from the same lots ranked on price per tonne. How nicotine in tobacco is measured covers what to ask for, and quality and testing covers what travels with a consignment.
Talk to us
Tell us the form you want and the volume you need, and we will come back on what we are holding. Ask for a sample and run it against your own process.
Call +91 8000150037 · Email hello@lrtobacco.com · Send an enquiry