Opening Day a Quiet Affair

Source from:  By Paul Woolverton Staff writer 08/05/2004

The annual tobacco markets quietly opened in southeastern North Carolina on Tuesday. As recently as the late 1990s, the opening of the flue-cured tobacco markets gave places such as Fairmont reason to celebrate. Large crowds gathered at the auction warehouses to watch the first day of sales and see farmers receive get their first paychecks of the season. [img border=0 hspace="4" vspace="4" align="left" src=http://www.tobaccochina.com/english/picture/n04tobacco.jpg] But in the past five years, the rise in contract tobacco farming and the overall decline in American tobacco production have nearly erased the long traditions. The flue-cured tobacco quota is 50 percent of what it was in 1997, and the few warehouses that remain have less tobacco to sell. At People's Warehouse on the Border Belt in Fairmont, about four dozen people milled around the bales before the sale started at 9 Tuesday morning. The local banks set out doughnuts, cans of soft drinks and breakfast biscuits. Bob Capps, the sales supervisor, led a short ceremony and prayer to begin the season. "We beseech thee, oh Lord, to bless this, our present assembly, that the products of our labor will return us a fair price in the marketplace. In your name we pray. Amen," he said. He then asked whether there were any politicians, who would have gotten a few minutes to speak. No one spoke up. In years past In years past, Fairmont's tobacco auctions drew dignitaries from across the state. Gov. Jim Hunt came. Richard Vinroot, a former gubernatorial candidate, came. The late state Agriculture Commissioner Jim Graham would make an appearance. Britt Cobb, the current commissioner of agriculture who is up for re-election, was attending a Council of State meeting Tuesday morning, a spokesman said. Cobb plans to attend an opening ceremony for the Eastern Belt scheduled today in Wilson. The Council of State, which consists of the governor and other high-ranking elected officials, meets monthly. Cobb's opponent, Republican Steve Troxler of Guilford County, said he wanted to attend but he had to work on his own tobacco farm Tuesday. He has about 55 acres this year and, like the other growers, is in the middle of harvesting the crop. He plans to attend an opening ceremony Monday. The auction began in Fairmont with only two buyers bidding instead of the half-dozen of a few years ago. The other companies, such as Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, recently quit the auctions in favor of directly contracting with growers. An estimated 80 percent of the crop now is sold through contracts instead of the traditional auctions. The leaf that goes to auction comes either from farmers who couldn't get a contract, chose not to get a contract or couldn't put their entire crop under contract. The auctions are quieter and less animated than they used to be. Hand-held computers Until last year, the buyers called out and used hand signals to indicate their bids as the auctioneer led the sale with a sing-song chant. Starting last year - to answer farmer suspicions that the system may be rigged - the auctioning switched to hand- held computers that communicate between the buyers and the auctioneer. Auctioneer Jane Squires on Tuesday morning still sang, but the bids were signaled to her silently as the two buyers pressed buttons on their computers. Neither buyer, Mike Cook for Universal Leaf Tobacco Co. or Sammie Raper for Export Leaf Tobacco Co., bought the first three dozen or so bales that Squires tried to sell. Again and again, her song ended with the same lyric: "co-op!" The Flue Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corp. bought the crop by default. This farmer-owned organization automatically buys the tobacco when the companies reject it. It's part of tobacco's federal price-support program. When companies refuse to offer more than a federally set minimum price, the co-op gets it. The co-op bought 82 percent of the tobacco on sale Tuesday, the Federal-State Market News Service reported. People's had 110,000 pounds for sale Tuesday. Export bought about 3,000 pounds, Capps said, and Universal, none. "Not a good thing," said farmer Bentley Harris of Maxton. "That tells us our companies ain't wanting it. That's the way I look at it." Harris had none for sale Tuesday but will bring some out soon. He also has some under contract. Later Tuesday morning, when the auction moved to the Hi-Dollar Tobacco Warehouse, farmer Reece Price of South Carolina was disappointed with how his 7,747 pounds of tobacco sold. The co-op bought it all at $1.55 per pound. "This tobacco at $1.50 is not bad, but this tobacco could have been good enough for $1.65 or a $1.70." Harris and Price hope the government will end the tobacco price support program and compensate the farmers for the money invested in buying and renting quota. For decades, the growers liked the price support system, but now it's often tagged as part of their current troubles. It keeps U.S. tobacco priced high despite rapidly falling demand on the world market. Without a quota buyout, Harris is thinking of quitting. "I'm going to walk out if they don't buy it out," he said. Enditem