N.C. Tobacco Production Increases

Source from:  The Associated Press Posted on Mon, Jul. 02, 2007 07/27/2007

The number of tobacco farmers in North Carolina has declined because of the elimination of federal price supports and a decline in smoking, but some counties have become even bigger producers of tobacco. Johnston County leads the state in production with 22.3 million pounds of leaf in 2006, a 25 percent increase since the price supports ended in 2004. Price supports stopped after a federal buyout of the quotas that had supported the tobacco farming industry for decades. The number of tobacco farmers in the state dropped from 10,000 in 2004 to 5,000 last year, says the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina. But tobacco is a $1.2 billion crop in the United States, which contributes 5 percent of the world's production after once dominating leaf supply. North Carolina still is the largest domestic producer, growing about 70 percent of the U.S. leaf. While many farmers retired from tobacco with their buyout checks, others saw a new freedom to grow leaf where they wanted instead of commuting by tractor to small, scattered plots they rented. "If you zig when everyone else zags, you open up a market," said Brent Pope, a fourth-generation tobacco farmer near Kenly, referring to farmers who have stayed in the tobacco business. Pope said the changes have made farming more efficient. He has 185 acres of tobacco with his father and an uncle. "You don't have to have a half-acre here or two acres there," Pope said. Agriculture experts say the change also means tobacco is grown in the areas where the sandy soil best supports it - along the Interstate 95 corridor. Tobacco now brings about $1.50 a pound, down 40 to 60 cents from the pre-buyout days. The lower price reflects no land rental payments, said Blake Brown, a professor of agriculture economics at N.C. State University. U.S. tobacco has become more competitive in the world market because the U.S. dollar is weaker than other currencies in tobacco-producing countries and U.S. prices are lower, said Graham Boyd, executive vice president of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina. As in the old days, tobacco sometimes is the smallest crop on a farm but the most profitable. Wayne Worley, 36, said he has less tobacco than other crops - corn, cotton and soybeans - but it brings the most cash. He has planted 77 acres on his Johnston County far, up from 21 acres under the price support system. Many tobacco farms averaged 50 to 100 acres before the buyout, but 200-acre spreads are more common and some expanded to 500 acres or more. "You're dealing with larger farms than ever in tobacco," said Loren Fisher, an extension tobacco specialist. "The big growers are getting bigger." Enditem