USDA Planting Estimates Seen as Conservative

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 04/07/2011

The US Department of Agriculture's Prospective Planting Report projects a slight increase in flue-cured plantings this year but a three per cent decrease in Burley plantings, according to a story by the respected tobacco commentator, Christopher Bickers, in his recent Tobacco Farmer Newsletter. The USDA planting projections are: flue-cured up one per cent on that of 2010 to 213,000 acres; Burley down three per cent to 94,750 acres; fire-cured up four per cent to 16,250 acres; dark air-cured down seven per cent to 5,100 acres; cigar types down 21 per cent to 4,410 acres; and Southern Maryland up 36 per cent to 3,000 acres. Bickers made the point that these were seen by most observers as being very conservative estimates. Enditem