November 3, 2005

Tobacco production shifts as industry adapts

BLACKSTONE—When the federal tobacco buyout program was announced last year, it meant an end to quotas, the licenses that determined how much tobacco a farmer could grow.

It also meant an end to the geographic limitations on what type of tobacco could be grown, and where. Traditionally a Southwest Virginia crop, burley tobacco production began shifting east this year. The Southern Piedmont region of the state, where flue-cured tobacco production has been king, is now producing about 25 percent of this year’s burley.

“Our climate and our soils are very well suited for burley production,” said Dr. David Reed, Virginia Cooperative Extension tobacco agronomist at the Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center. “We’ve got counties in the Piedmont that went from no acres of burley to 20 acres or more this year. Patrick and Franklin counties both have increased burley acreage. Dinwiddie County is another one, at the other extreme of the region. We’ve got some burley in all the Southern Piedmont counties.”

Burley tobacco is cured by air-drying, while flue-cured tobacco is cured in barns with forced-air heat. The two types of tobacco typically are blended to make cigarettes.

“This year and 2006 will be trial years for our Southside growers,” Reed said. “The advantage with burley for our flue-cured growers is they don’t have the fuel costs to cure it; however, labor is an issue. We’re getting ready to strip down the plants and prepare them for market, but most of our migrant labor is leaving for the season.”

Reed said technology is coming that will reduce labor costs, but growers are in a quandry. It has to be proven that burley tobacco is profitable before they can invest in new equipment. But for many farmers, mechanization is what’s needed to make a profit.

The Virginia field office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates 4.6 million pounds of burley tobacco will be harvested this year, down from 8.2 million pounds in 2004. Last year’s crop brought in $16.2 million in cash receipts for growers.

And while most tobacco is raised under contract, meaning farmers no longer sell it at auction as they did for decades, a few burley auctions are surviving for another year.

Several growers’ groups and tobacco warehouse owners have banded together to sponsor burley tobacco auctions in Abingdon and in Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee. Beginning in mid-November, the auctions are billed as an experiment to offer growers an opportunity to sell their crop if they don’t have a contract with a buyer. However, with the federal tobacco program gone, there are no price floors and no guarantee that a grower’s crop will sell at all. Farmers are watching to see if buyers, particularly from China, will keep free-market tobacco sales alive.

Contact Reed at 434-292-5331 or Norm Hyde, VFBF video producer, at 804-290-1146.