Smith Receives Excellence in Agriculture Award

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 03/02/2010

At the recent Agricultural Commissioner's Breakfast for the benefit of the Tobacco Farm Life Museum in Kenly, North Carolina, USA, Richard D. Smith of Independent Leaf Tobacco Co. in Wilson, North Carolina, received the Museum's Excellence in Agriculture award. Smith, who retired after a 39-year career buying and selling tobacco around the world for Export Leaf Tobacco Co., formed his own company, Independent Leaf Tobacco Co., in 2006. A flue-cured tobacco buying agent for Hail & Cotton Tobaccos, Smith also acts as an independent tobacco dealer, broker and agent. ILTC buys all types of tobacco from growers and sells it to a myriad of domestic and international customers. Born and raised on his family's farm in Pitt County, Smith worked not only in the tobacco field but also in his family's tobacco auction warehouse. Upon graduation from NC State's Agricultural Institute program in 1967, Smith joined Export Leaf Tobacco Co. in Wilson as a processing plant foreman. Later, he earned a bachelor's degree in business management. Over the years, he served Export Leaf Tobacco, then a subsidiary of Brown & Williamson Tobacco, as a leaf buyer and supervisor and was named senior manager of leaf sales in 1991. Eight years later he was promoted to director of leaf buying and sales. With the merger of B&W with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Corp. in 2004, Smith became director of leaf sales for Export Leaf, now a division of R.J.R. Tobacco. Smith served as a past president and chairman of the executive committee of the Tobacco Association of the United States. He currently sits on the board of directors of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina and serves as president of the North Carolina Tobacco Foundation. A past member of USDA's Tobacco Advisory Committee, Smith was named a "Tobacco Great" in 2004 by the NC State Crop Science department for his contributions to tobacco in the state, nation, and world. Most recently, Smith was appointed as a director of the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission. Smith joins previous recipients of the Excellence in Agriculture award, including Agricultural Commissioner Steve Troxler, retired extension agent Bill Lamm, NC State CALS Tobacco head Bill Collins and Fair Products Co.'s, Frank Grainger. Enditem