Thursday, February 24, 2000
Sales of burley not too bad
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The 1999 tobacco-selling season concludes today on a higher note than expected across Kentucky and other burley belt states.
Some tobacco officials say that the crop's quality was below average this year but that it could have been worse considering last summer's drought, which extended through the fall. Quality is dependent on fluctuations in moist and dry air.
“Overall, it was better than expected, but it was a tough year all around,” said Scott Althauser of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association in Lexington.
On average, he said, growers have received about $1.90 per pound of leaf — the same as last year. But about 40 percent has been purchased by the cooperative and placed in its pool stocks. Last year, the pool take was 12.8 percent in Kentucky.
Pool tobacco is lower-quality leaf that is unable to fetch a penny over the price support, which has ranged this year from $1.86 to $1.97 for tobacco's three grades.
Mr. Althauser said he will not have final numbers until Friday, but he thinks 542 million pounds of tobacco will be sold throughout the tobacco belt this year.
He estimated that about 377 million pounds will be sold in Kentucky markets. Kentucky generally averages about 70 percent of sales for the burley belt and has about 20 burley markets.
Meanwhile, another tobacco-growing season begins this spring. Growers already know that they're in for a rough time.
Federal officials have cut the burley tobacco quota — the amount farmers can grow and sell — by 45.3 percent.
The annual quota is determined by the demand of tobacco companies. Growers think U.S. tobacco companies are importing more tobacco from overseas and that long-term, multibillion-dollar court settlements also are coming into play.
Over the next 25 years, tobacco companies will pay more than $200 billion to individual states because of the health-related costs of tobacco.
For a separate 12-year settlement, the companies will pay $5.15 billion to the tobacco belt's quota owners, landowners and tenants to compensate for the higher prices they will seek to pay for the larger settlement.
Official sales will close today. Each Kentucky market will offer a “cleanup” sale the week of March 13. The sale is for farmers who stripped tobacco late in the sale season.
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