An 18-year growth spurt for dark leaf

Source from:  tobaccointernational.com 06/22/2007

Lexington, KY — The demand for dark tobacco continues to improve in response to the sustained expansion in the domestic consumption of smokeless products, an economist at the University of Kentucky said in December. This consumption surge has gone on for 18 consecutive years. In addition, dark tobacco growers continue to benefit from the scarcity of quality dark tobacco production anywhere else in the world, said economist Will Snell. Also, there is an ongoing close relationship between growers and domestic smokeless tobacco manufacturers. Grower prices for dark tobaccos have fallen since the buyout. “But the smokeless tobacco companies did provide large enough price incentives to entice most growers to remain in the industry” in the past two seasons, Snell said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated in October that combined U.S. production of dark fire-cured and dark air-cured types in 2006 would be 51.3 mn pounds, up 4.4% from 2005. All but about 1.5% is grown in Kentucky and Tennessee (Types 21, 22, 35 and 36), while the remainder is grown in Virginia (Type 21).