Tobacco Season Open

Source from:  By Tonya Root - The Sun News 08/15/2007

Industry growth mixed in Carolinas after buyout Matt Willoughby reached a milestone Thursday when he drove his family's blue International flatbed truck through the yellow doors at the Big L tobacco warehouse off Front Street in Mullins. The truck's bed bulged with 16 bales of golden tobacco - his first tobacco crop. The 26-year-old Green Sea-area resident joined numerous flue-cured tobacco growers this week in taking their crop to market. Some sold at the Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperation warehouse where Willoughby went, and others through a contract with one of the big cigarette manufacturers. The opening of markets this month marks the third sale cycle since Congress approved a $10.1 billion tobacco buyout in October 2004 and ended the tobacco marketing quota system that started in the 1920s. Since the government does not regulate the crop's production or maintain the government-regulated price support system anymore, officials have little data on the progress of tobacco sales, prices and its quality. "As hot as it's been this week, it'll make you rethink your career decisions," said Willoughby, whose shirt was drenched with sweat after he removed the tarp that covered some of the first crop. He said he's grown as a professional farmer. "I've watched money go out for the last four or five months. It's good to get some back in." Willoughby, a fourth-generation farmer, decided to return to his family's tradition after graduation from the University of South Carolina and working a couple years in real estate. His decision to carve his own future from the land is not typical after the buyout among tobacco farmers, officials said. While there has been growth in the coastal region of North Carolina, the decline of flue-cured tobacco acreage is being recorded in the Piedmont areas of the state as well as in Virginia and Georgia, said Blake Brown, an agriculture and resource economics professor at N.C. State University. South Carolina's tobacco acreage has remained steady, he said. "Production has not increased overall as much as we anticipated," Brown said. "The price declined after the tobacco buyout, and we have seen it come up some since 2005. But if the companies want to buy United States-grown tobacco, they're going to have to pay more for it because of the fuel cost, labor cost and fertilizer cost increasing." With the lack of price supports, increased production costs and the uncertainty of contracts, many tobacco growers left the tradition behind for more profitable crops and ventures. But for those who have remained growers, prices have held steady this year, experts said. Since 2005 the price per pound average was about $1.45 with lower-priced contracts. Manufacturers saw about $1.34 per pound, Brown previously said. On Thursday at the stabilization warehouse, officials said prices ranged from $1.30 to $1.50 per pound depending on the quality and moisture content of the tobacco bales, said Johnny Shelley, a co-manager of the Big L Warehouse. "We had a real good crop until this past week. I feel the sun has taken its toll on it now," said Shelley. He watched farmers unload bales of tobacco at the warehouse, which handles about 9 million pounds annually and serves farmers from Lumberton, N.C., Whiteville, N.C., to Conway and Bennettsville. The warehouse ships tobacco to foreign markets as well as to its own cigarette processing plant in Roxoboro, N.C., where the new brand 1839 is made. The name stands for the year an N.C. farmhand in Caswell County accidentally discovered what was called "bright leaf tobacco" through a process that imparted a distinctive golden color and mild flavor and aroma to the tobacco but left a residual charcoal taste, according to the Flue-Cured Tobacco Corporation. "We've seen the exit of older farmers and we've seen more consolidation of farms because the profit margin is just no longer there for tobacco farmers to stay viable. They are having to be creative and very innovative, but no matter how creative or innovative, you're at the mercy of the elements," said Arnold Hamm with the Flue-Cured Tobacco Corporation. "I expect to see a further consolidation of tobacco farms and I expect to see a decline in domestic consumption of tobacco products in the United States. This in turn will point us to overseas markets." Willoughby said he thinks his tobacco is exported, with most of the crop probably going to China. "[Dad] always asked if I'd come back. I tried not to for a while because it's such hard work. He's built a good operation and I hated to see it go to waste," Willoughby said. "I hope to continue the tradition and maybe add on to what Dad and Granddad did." Enditem