The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board says it will be on the lookout for nesting when the 2014 marketing season for the "golden leaf" opens today. 

Nesting tobacco means placing good quality tobacco on the top of the hogshead and bad quality at the bottom or deep inside to conceal trash or inferior tobacco from the buyers. 

Farmers normally do it to increase weight of the bales. The practice attracts a penalty of $20 per bale or imprisonment for one year or both. 

During the previous selling season, over 46 000 kilogrammes of tobacco (522 bales) were forfeited to the TIMB after the bales were confiscated for tobacco nesting.

Tags: Tobacco,